Swords of the Living Dead
by nanaya88
Summary: Rather than a castle floating in the sky, Kayaba Akihiko has created a world where the dead refuse to stay put in their graves. Players fight to reclaim Aincrad, a massive city spanning 100 districts, from the grasp of the undead. But when they find themselves trapped in this nightmarish world, zombie-hunting ceases to be all fun and games. Welcome to SLD. Follows Kirito and Sinon.
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

_Prologue_

"Target is 500 meters away from your position. Looks like there's a swarm of «Creepers» at the front of the gate, nothing you can't handle. I'll cover your back when you go in."

Asada Shino, known as Sinon in this world, peered through the scope of her trusted partner, a Hecate II sniper rifle, and relayed what she saw to her companion on the ground through her earpiece. She was currently hiding on the balcony of a nearby building. Their enemy responded primarily to sound, which was why she had already planned four different escape routes for when she pulled the trigger. Against these foes, preparedness was the same thing as staying alive.

"Acknowledged. Thank you, Sinon," a boy's voice called into her ear.

Sinon felt her face flush a little. She was used to being ostracized for being a loner in this game. Rarely, if ever, did people ever show their appreciation for her. Although the term wasn't actually true in her case, she had been labeled a «Beater» ever since she had acquired her rifle, a stroke of luck and misfortune that had befallen her before the end of the first week within this death game. Those who didn't shun her and give her a wide berth usually tried to use her for their own ends or as a means to boost their reputations. Some had even tried to kill her for her weapon. Due to such occurrences, Sinon had forced herself to become cold and uncaring, concerned only with her own survival. In short, she had become that which she had been accused of being.

"You should thank those guys who agreed to secure a perimeter for you," Sinon replied. "How did you find so many people willing to handle it? I can't believe that samurai wannabe agreed to this so easily."

As she spoke, she turned her gun to the side so that she could see one of the members of the guild «Fuurinkazan» through the scope. As with all members of the group, he wore red samurai armor and was equipped as a «Striker», a melee damage dealer. Sinon thought they were an odd bunch; clearly anyone who could remain as cheerful as them a year and a half into the game had to be insane to some degree.

"Klein's a good guy," the boy replied, "Are they done with their preparations yet?"

"Looks like they're good on their end," Sinon answered, pointing her weapon back towards the house they were trying to reach.

It was a large red and white three-story residence. Once, it might have been the home of an affluent noble or politician, but it was now in a state of severe disrepair. A third of the shingles were missing off the red roof and all the windows on the lower floor had been shattered. Vines grew from the ground up to the top floor. The lawn, which was expansive, was now overrun by weeds, wildflowers, and thorny shrubs. The black-iron gate, once a proud barrier separating that house from the rest of the world, hung askew, connected to the outer wall only by a single hinge. As the wind blew, the gate creaked loudly which explained why so many «Creepers» had gathered nearby.

"One last thing," Sinon said.

"Yeah?"

"Say hello to the princess for me, will you?"

There was no answer from the other end. Instead, a black streak flew from the base of the building Sinon was occupying towards the besieged house. The figure casually reached over his shoulders with both hands and drew his weapons; a pair of swords, one pitch black, the other silver as the moon. As he fell in amongst the enemies at the gate, Sinon couldn't help but admire his technique, moving from one to the next in quick succession while dispatching each foe with almost no wasted movements. The boy didn't once slow down in his charge for the front door.

Total elapsed time from the start of his dash to when he reached the front door: 1 minute 3 seconds. A trail of sparkles, the «Death Effects » of his enemies, marked out the path he had taken. Even though «Creepers» were considered one of the weakest forms of the undead, slow and driven solely by instinct, it was an impressive feat. Through her scope, Sinon watched as the boy turned and gave her an insolent, lopsided grin and a thumbs-up before entering the building.

If the members of «Fuurinkazan» were "odd," then that boy, Kirito, was the undisputed crown emperor of "strangeness." A little over a year ago, he had managed to break through the wall she had built up around herself before she even realized it. In just a few weeks time, she found herself laughing amongst his friends and opening up. In just a few weeks time, she found herself enjoying the game for the first time. This game, turned into a death spectacle by its creator, Kayaba Akihiko. «_Swords of the Living Dead»_

* * *

_-20 months earlier-_

"Are there any other challengers!?"

An arrogant voice called out in the marketplace. Kirigaya Kazuto, who went by the amalgamation "Kirito" in the game, walked over to the rear of the crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle.

"What's going on?" he asked the nearest person.

The cloaked figure turned around and faced him. Immediately, Kirito wished he had picked someone else to ask. Mainly because he recognized the face under that hood. Argo «the Rat» was one of the best information dealers around but in his opinion, her personality could use a little work. The whisker markings on her face stretched slightly as she broke into a grin.

"Ki-bou!" she exclaimed. "I haven't seen or heard from you in a few days. If you weren't such a gaming addict, I would have guessed you gave up on the game or something. What's with that face? I won't charge you anything for this information since you can find out just by asking anyone else here."

Kirito's face relaxed. Let down your guard when questioning Argo and you'd find yourself paying for information you didn't even realize you had asked for until it was too late. He'd heard a few horror stories about people who had to leave their pants with her as collateral when it came time to pay up. Argo insisted that those were exaggerations, slander from those jealous of her information gathering skills. Kirito would have been much more likely to believe her if she hadn't charged him 500 «Col» for the answer when he had asked.

"I had stuff to take care of in real life," he explained. "That's why I haven't been on the past two days."

"Well, welcome back to «SLD» then. To answer your question, Ki-bou," she explained. "That guy has been challenging people to duels since this morning. He's really good too, 35 wins 0 losses. I'm starting to think the latest patch completely unbalanced the game."

The patch she was referring to was Patch 1.03, the third one released during the current Beta testing phase. Initially, the setting of «_Swords of the Living Dead»_ had been that of a fantasy world overrun by the undead. There had been no firearms of any sort in the game. Ranged weaponry had consisted only of bows and arbalests, balanced out in that there were no special combo skills for them like there were for melee weapons. But due to popular outcry, the developers had added guns to the game. These were restricted to wheel-lock pistols and flintlock muskets to fit in better with the setting, but rumor had it that more "modern" weapons existed, relics from an age long past according to the lore of this world.

Kirito had browsed through the patch notes when he entered today. From what he could recall, guns nearly guaranteed a kill on non-player humanoid enemies if they struck the head. A hit to the torso did a considerable amount of damage as well, taking out unarmored enemies in one or two hits. To balance them out, they had a substantial reload time and generated a lot of noise; something which attracted the undead. But in a duel situation where you could reload between rounds, it was almost the same as cheating unless both players used guns.

"35 and 0? How'd he manage that?" Kirito asked."I thought shields were supposed to be able to block projectiles."

"They're going by first-strike rules," Argo explained. "That player has been aiming for the legs and the arms. Smaller and faster moving targets, which was why I said he was really good."

"Are there no more willing challengers?" the arrogant blue-haired man called out once more, waving his pistol in the air.

Kirito felt a rush of adrenaline coursing through his body. He wanted to see the new weapons in action, to test his own considerable skill in PvP against the undefeated player before him. He hadn't felt this alive since he had first created his character in SLD and fought his first enemy in the field.

"I challenge you," he called out.

Heads turned in his direction as the crowd opened a path for him to the center of the marketplace. Kirito strolled through to face his foe. The man gazed contemptuously at the weapon at Kirito's side, a single long sword, before looking at Kirito.

"First-strike rules," he declared.

Kirito replied, "Fine by me."

The two duelists faced off. Kirito drew his weapon, the «Anneal Blade» he had earned on a quest about three weeks ago, and entered a relaxed stance. His opponent eased into a shooting stance, pointing his weapon at Kirito's head. The timer to start the duel counted down.

«3…2…1…Duel Start!»

Kirito rushed forwards, keeping his eyes trained on the weapon in his opponent's hand. Like all other known firearms in the game, it was a single shot weapon. If he could avoid the first attack, victory would be his. There had been 15 meters between the two of them at the start of the match. The distance was now less than 10.

The blue-haired man grinned as he aimed the gun down at Kirito's feet before revealing his feint and firing at his left shoulder. But Kirito was ready for such a trick. By keeping his focus on the weapon, he sidestepped away from the thin line in the air that marked the projectile's path, the «Projectile Path Prediction Line» used to balance out the use of ranged weaponry against melee opponents, just as the man pulled the trigger, effectively dodging the shot. An audible gasp rose up from the crowd just as the blue-haired man realized he had missed. He took a step backwards as Kirito neared him.

With just five meters left, Kirito drew his weapon back to attack. That was when he noticed the man putting his right hand behind his back. Based on the patch notes, it was possible to switch from a ranged weapon to a melee weapon with only a slight delay. No doubt the man was trying to do so after his initial attack had failed. But Kirito wouldn't give him the chance to complete that action.

He dug his feet into the cobblestone street beneath him and accelerated forwards. The pace that Kirito had been running at earlier wasn't his top speed in the game as dictated by his «Agility» stat; one of the little tricks that he had learned to use to his advantage back when he had practiced kendo alongside his little sister in real life translated into the game world. By the time the blue-haired man managed to draw his short sword out of the sheath strapped to the back of his belt, the «Duel Winner Message» was already playing.

«Winner: Kirito»

"Good duel," Kirito said, sheathing his weapon.

The man shot him a bitter look before muttering, "Good duel."

He stalked off through the crowd, clearly upset that he had lost. Kirito, on the other hand, was swamped by a mass of people congratulating him on his win. To him, it seemed like all 1,000 of the players who had been granted early access in the Beta were there. In the end, he managed to get free and escape using the «Hiding» and «Sneaking» skills.

-o-

"Nihihi, did you have fun back there?" Argo asked the boy sitting next to her on the park bench.

Kirito raised an eyebrow and answered, "The duel was great. The aftermath—not so much."

Although he had managed to get away from the majority of the players in the marketplace with copious use of the «Sneaking» skill, he couldn't escape from Argo. Her «Searching» skill was simply too high for him to avoid detection.

"I didn't expect you to actually dodge the bullet. Been watching too many American action movies lately?" she teased.

Kirito ignored that last bit and replied, "Well, you did say he shoots at the arms and legs. I figured that if I kept my eye on where he was looking and his finger, I'd be able to know when he'd shoot and where he was aiming. Thanks for telling me that Argo."

Argo suddenly looked pensive, hunching over slightly so that Kirito couldn't see her face.

"Something the matter?"

"No," she replied, laughing. "Just regretting not charging you for that information since it helped you win."

Typical Argo.

"Kind of hard to believe there's only 2 days left in the beta," he noted, mainly to fill the void in the conversation.

"It's only going to be a month or so before the launch," Argo replied. "Speaking of which, add me to your contact list. I hear you can carry over personal information from the beta to the launch."

"More free information? You're rather generous today Argo," Kirito joked.

She gave him an annoyed look, "Just shut up and do it. I don't want to have to build my network again from scratch and you're one of my regulars."

Kirito chuckled as he sent the friend request to the girl sitting next to him. A confirmation message appeared and her name appeared on his list of friends. Argo's smile twisted almost mockingly when she looked over at his menu.

"What's this, Ki-bou? I'm the only person on your friends list? I don't know whether to be touched or concerned."

"What? Like yours is any better?" Kirito shot back, feeling the need to defend himself.

Argo grinned and showed him her friends list. It was long enough to require a scroll bar.

"Take away the contacts for your work," Kirito added. "How many are left?"

"Um, three? Give or take," Argo answered sheepishly. She had never been particularly good about making friends. In fact, one of the reasons she had started opening up to others was due to Kirito's influence. Not that she would tell him that.

"Anyways Ki-bou, I'm going to log off and take a shower. Feel free to let your imagination run wild, young man," she said with a wink.

"W-what?" Kirito sputtered, but she was already gone. His face was, no doubt, beet red right now.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Argo seemed to know exactly what to say in order to fluster him. After a few moments, he finally managed to clear her face, complete with that teasing, upturned corner of her mouth, from his mind.

"Alright, time to get some hunting done," Kirito said to himself.

Most players in the beta test phase went out in parties in order to hunt. Kirito was one of the few exceptions, a solo player. Initially, he had gone out with groups as well but soon became frustrated with the lack of teamwork most beta testers showed. Few players were even remotely close to his level in skill and as such, Kirito felt that grouping up actually slowed his progress. He had switched to a solo playstyle after the first week of the beta.

It had been tough at first. He had to get used to a completely different atmosphere. In a party, if you encountered a group of the undead, your group would generally watch out and make sure your entire party wasn't flanked. This wasn't possible as a solo player. He had died twice before learning how to deal with the lack of extra sets of watchful eyes.

Kirito had also learned not to set the computer generated scents to their lowest settings early on. Most players couldn't stand the smell of decay that heralded the approach of the weakest of the undead; the majority of players kept their scent settings at the minimum allowable levels when out in the field. They were called «Creepers» by players and loosely corresponded to "zombie." They were also one of the only two classes of undead that swarmed, the other being skeletal units. Those were nicknamed «Clackers» for the unique sound they made. By relying on senses other than sight, Kirito was able to avoid getting into fights with more than one or two enemies at a time.

Kirito walked out to the teleportation stone in the middle of the district center and declared, "8th Ward."

The game took place in a massive city, «Aincrad», which was divided into a hundred different districts. The districts were arranged in a spiral, with the first and largest district at the very outer edge. The starting town was a base camp, resembling a town, outside of the city proper. Each district was completely infested with the undead until the boss of that district was killed. When that happened, the entire zone would be cleared of any remaining enemies and become a safe-zone for players. In order to allow players to level their skills and gather resources without being at the latest available district, there was an expansive sewer area under each district which continued to house mobs even after the district above had been cleared. Sewers in general held monsters of the same level and type as the district they were a part of although Kirito had heard rumors of hidden areas that housed monsters from more advanced zones. Some even said that there were special bosses in the sewers but none had been found thus far.

The 8th ward was the last safety zone that had been opened thus far in the beta testing period. It was unlikely that the players would be able to clear the 9th district before the end of the testing, but Kirito wanted to spend more time learning the battle patterns of the enemies there.

The 9th district, like the areas before it before the 8th district had been reclaimed by players, was made up of ramshackle buildings and streets that looked as if they hadn't been maintained in a century or more. Leaf-less trees and brambles lined the roads and the sky was darkened overhead; it wouldn't clear up until the district was freed. The bread and butter of any horror genre game was the ambience. In that respect, Kirito admitted that Kayaba Akihiko had created just the right mix in this VRMMO. The feeling Kirito got when walking down these streets was that he was starring in a horror movie; whether he was playing the part of the hero or the victim was up to him.

The clanking of chains told the boy that an enemy was near. Starting on this floor, there were enemies called «Flesh Horrors». Stitched together from multiple corpses, they were a terrifying foe that swung around rusted blades attached to chains. Because the attack pattern of this weapon type was something completely new, it had taken Kirito several long hours before he had gotten used to fighting this monster.

He grinned to himself now. Because once he _had_ gotten used to fighting against «Flesh Horrors», Kirito had found them to be an excellent source of experience and item drops. He was a far cry from the same player that had frozen up when encountering his first «Creeper» horde.

* * *

Asada Shino sighed and looked at the bottom corner of her computer screen. The time read 11:50 of November 6, 2022. Only ten more minutes until the game's launch. Her p.c. was streaming a newscast, the sound turned down nearly all the way so that she could just barely make out the words coming from the speakers.

"And there you have it," the sharply dressed reporter finished as a small crowd of people behind her pushed and shoved to get into view of the camera. "In just a few moments, the first Virtual Reality MMO, «Swords of the Living Dead» or SLD for short, will be opening its server for the first time since the beta test. As you may know, 1000 randomly selected «Nerve Gear» owners were invited to the beta and the positive feedback from the players was part of what made this launch so spectacularly successful. 24,000 copies of the game, the initial launch number, were sold out or reserved within the first two days of the launch date's announcement."

Shino tuned out the rest of the report. It was just some unimportant announcement about an exclusive interview with Kayaba Akihiko, the game's creator and the designer of the «Nerve Gear» system, that was available on their website.

She wasn't planning on playing the game as an MMO enthusiast anyways. Her reason for playing was because she had heard that the full-dive experience almost perfectly mimicked reality. She wanted to exist in that world where the dead walked because of one reason alone. To find a way to change from the "weak" Asada Shino into someone else.

Several years ago, she had been at the scene of a bank robbery. Her mother was there alongside her, whispering that everything would be alright as Shino huddled in fear. She had almost believed her. But then the robber had pointed a gun at them. Out of all the people in the bank, he had chosen to target them. Everything else was a blur. When Shino finally regained her senses, she found herself standing over the man's body, his gun somehow in her hand and the barrel smoking. She could remember everything that happened afterwards, the police questioning, the looks of horror, fear, and grudging admiration on the faces of the other spectators. But pulling the trigger was a blur. The one incident that had shaped her life most. The event that had caused her to become shunned at school and whispered about on the streets to such a degree that she had transferred multiple times and she could barely recall it due to trauma.

Shino shook her head. She wouldn't think on that right now. Not when her goal was to become strong enough to leave that past behind. For that purpose, she would enter this other world. A world where the dead walked and weapons were commonplace. She would steel herself and become someone else. Anyone else. And if she became stronger in reality as a result, so much the better.

It was now 12:05. No doubt many people had already logged on. Berating herself for forgetting the time, Shino placed her «Nerve Gear» atop her head and laid down on her bed. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she calmed herself. She felt her heartbeat slow.

"Link Start!"

She was taken to the log-in menu where she entered a pseudonym for herself. "Sinon." Close enough to her real name that she was comfortable with it but also different enough that she could picture herself as someone else. Because she had not taken part in the beta phase, the game skipped over the option to let her import data and sent her to the character creation area, a circular white room with what appeared to be a floating mannequin at the center.

Here she chose the parts that would become her avatar, her in-game character. She immediately made her character look as imposing as possible; a female commando. Tussled blue hair and a strong jaw. Eyes that said "don't even think about it" and a body build that was lithe and muscular. Her character's height was roughly a foot taller than hers in real life. Turning the generated character around and admiring her handiwork, Shino confirmed that this was the character she wanted to be known as.

With a stomach wrenching sensation, Asada Shino was no more. In her place, standing in the center of the square at the starting town, Sinon came into being. Her first thought was to check the time: 12:45. It had taken her over half an hour to generate her ideal character.

She walked over to a park bench and sat down. Waving her hand in the air in front of her brought up a menu. Browsing through the different options, she selected the skills list. It was a good thing she had thought to read up on the basic in-game functions before logging in. Even if there was a help feature within the game itself, it wouldn't do for "Sinon" to appear as anything less than a competent and confident player.

She already knew what skill she wanted. Her first skill slot was immediately filled with «Basic Firearms». She would leave the second skill slot beginners were granted unfilled for now.

This early on, there were no player-run stalls where people could buy and sell goods open yet so Sinon entered an NPC shop instead. Beginners started with only 1000 «Col» with which to purchase their starting equipment. Armor accounted for half of that sum already, so Sinon was left with barely enough to buy a pistol and some ammunition. She exited the store wearing a set of light armor, a pistol hanging by her side, and a paltry 50 «Col» remaining in her funds.

As she approached the entrance to the 1st ward, the first area where it was possible to encounter enemies, a voice called out from behind her.

"You there, you're not thinking about going inside just armed with that are you?"

The speaker was wearing a brown cloak with the hood up that covered the top half of her face. It also made it impossible to tell her gender just by looking, but the voice was unmistakably female. The figure's overall appearance could best be described as "shady."

"I am, is there a problem?" Sinon answered. Even to her own ears, her voice sounded cold.

The figure hesitated for a moment and then replied, "Nope, have fun."

Was it just her imagination or was the cloaked person grinning mischievously? Sinon decided to ignore her for now and head on out.

-o-

"Damn that girl," Sinon muttered to herself as she ran, her boots echoing loudly, "she knew this was going to happen."

Sinon had found a spot that wasn't occupied by any players a short while ago. She could have just joined one of the many parties that were forming but decided that it'd be best to practice on her own first. She wanted to develop a reputation for being strong and partying as a new player broadcasted your shortcomings more effectively than anything else. Once she was more comfortable with her own abilities, _then_ she would join a party.

Unfortunately, she learned the hard way why the girl back in the plaza had seemed so amused. The enemies in this zone were attracted to noise; the more you made, the faster they came and in larger numbers. And nothing generated more noise than a gun. Coming in at a close second was running at full speed. But Sinon didn't care, she had to get away.

While the enemy was slow, there were a lot of them. Worst of all, it seemed the first shot she had fired in surprise when she turned a corner and bumped into a zombie had drawn in more from every corner of the surrounding region. Sinon was now running around trying to find a clear escape route or a spot with few enough foes that she could break through. So far, she had no luck at all. Behind her, an ever growing crowd of monsters was giving chase. Perhaps if she got far enough away they would give up and return to their aimless wandering.

"Gah!" she screamed as she turned another bend and almost ran over another monster.

These «Lesser Zombies», a «Creeper»-type monster, were starting to get to her. Their putrid scent was overwhelming and Sinon really did not like the way how flesh, skin, and bone seemed to meld together on the parts of their bodies that weren't covered in tattered clothing. But what really scared her most was how her mind seemed to merge the face of the man she had shot in the bank with those of the monsters.

She pointed her wheel-lock pistol at its head and pulled the trigger. A dark hole appeared in the monster's forehead and moments later, the «Lesser Zombie» exploded into prismatic particles, signaling that it had been defeated. Sinon ignored the experience and item drop menu that had appeared in favor of running even faster. No doubt more enemies were now zeroing in on her location after that last shot.

Sinon dodged under the arms of another monster and ducked into an alleyway, reloading as she ran. This type of action would have been impossible for her to do in real life, but the «System Assist» helped her to load a shot into the gun while moving. She dashed down the dark alley, her boots splashing water as she stepped in a puddle. Then she skidded to a halt. The way was blocked off by a wall that was too high to scale. Frantically looking around, Sinon could not see any other way out other than the direction from which she had come. Unfortunately, that egress was now blocked off. The horde of undead had finally caught up to her. Their groans as they shuffled nearer filled the girl with a sense of dread. As they closed in, the alleyway seemed to darken even further.

*Bang*

She killed one zombie and began to reload.

*Bang*

A second one went down with a groan, bursting into brilliant shards of light.

*Thud*

Sinon's back collided with the wall. Her feet shuffled backwards but she was no longer able to back up. She felt a scream rising from the back of her throat as the first of the monsters reached her and grabbed her by the arm. She pulled the trigger, but nothing happened as she hadn't reloaded yet. She tried hitting her enemy with the butt of the pistol, but aside from doing minimal damage to its health bar, nothing happened. Try as she might, she couldn't break free from that grip. She closed her eyes and turned her head, trying hard not to think of what was happening. That was impossible to do as she could hear the sounds of biting and feel pressure and tugs as her avatar was attacked by a merciless foe; thankfully there was no sensation of pain. After a few moments, Sinon chanced a look.

There beneath her, her avatar's body lay in a crumpled heap, her features now barely recognizable. Moments later, Sinon's vision began to darken as the system taunted her with the message «You Are Dead». Worst of all, as the respawn timer neared zero, Sinon's "corpse" began to twitch. With one second to go, it stumbled to its feet, joining the horde of «Lesser Zombies» that had hunted her down. Her vision faded to white.

-o-

The first thing she did when she respawned in the central square of the starting town was to check whether her head was still attached to her body. The experience at the end had been too realistic for her taste even though there wasn't any pain involved. It didn't seem like she had lost much from the death penalty; overall, her experience had gone up on that last trip and she had gained a skill level in «Basic Firearms». In addition, she had gotten a few item drops which she sold to an NPC vendor.

"I see you're back," the cloaked figure commented as Sinon once again headed for the entrance to the first zone, "I didn't see you returning by the gate so I assume you respawned?"

"You could have warned me that would happen," Sinon replied bitterly.

"Nihihi, it's better to experience what carelessness will get you firsthand."

Sinon glared at the cloaked girl and shot back, "And I suppose you're the master of carefulness. After all, you haven't taken a single step into a zone with hostile monsters yet, have you?"

To her surprise, the girl doubled over laughing.

"Oh, I like you," she said as soon as she caught her breath, "But to answer your question, you'd be correct. I've been here selling information to my clients since the server opened."

"Selling information?"

Sinon was so perplexed by the notion that she forgot about being annoyed. She could understand buying item drops and player-crafted gear, but why would anyone pay for access to information that should be readily available?

"Data such as drop-rates and farming spots," came the reply, "would you be interested?"

Sinon thought about it for a moment before declining.

"I'll find my own way around," she declared before opening the gate to the next zone. Behind her, she could hear the other girl's strange sounding laughter.

-o-

"I see you're back yet again," the cloaked figure greeted her for the third time today.

This time, Sinon thought she might have been able to sneak by and save herself a little embarrassment since the other girl was in conversation with two male players. Unfortunately, it almost seemed as if the self-proclaimed information dealer was on the lookout for her.

"I don't want to hear it," Sinon replied dryly.

She had been doing better on her second foray into the first district. By staying further away when shooting and remaining aware of her surroundings, she had managed to avoid being entrapped like she had before for the first half an hour. But then she had encountered something unexpected. The reanimated corpse of her own character. As if the game were mocking her previous weakness, it had a unique name atop its head: «Lesser Zombie: Sinon ». Her mind had frozen for a precious few seconds. Had the monster been a normal enemy, she would have recovered in time to avoid being killed.

Unfortunately, reanimated player avatars in «SLD» are equipped with whatever the player that was killed was wearing at the time of death. Before Sinon could fully process what was going on, her decayed counterpart had put a bullet through her head, prompting another «You Are Dead» message to play.

"Oh, don't give me that look," the other girl laughed, "Ki-bou, why don't you teach her some of the basics? You were going to help this other newbie out anyways, right?"

One of the male players the girl had been talking to turned around and regarded Sinon. He had a plain face, slightly unkempt black hair, was around the same height as Sinon, and wore only a breastplate for protective gear. All things considered, a very forgettable looking person.

"I guess I could, if she wants to," he replied, "it won't be that much different from just helping Klein. But she's a gun user, right? I'm not too familiar with that weapon-type."

Sinon tried to decline his offer, but between the teasing from the hooded girl, "Ki-bou's" insistence that it really wouldn't be much trouble, and her own desire to avoid getting killed again and allowing the system to mock her weakness once more, she found herself following him into the first zone.

Sinon noted the names that had appeared in the corner of her field of view. Her party members' health bars coupled with their names. So, she thought to herself, the black haired one was Kirito and the redhead who was trying hard to look and act like someone out of a samurai flick was Klein.

"So Sinon, you don't have any melee weapons at all?" Kirito asked as he looked over her character.

"Is that a problem?" Sinon replied a little harshly. She immediately regretted doing so. After all, he was just trying to help.

"Actually, it is," the young man replied bluntly, "reloading in this game, as I'm sure you've noticed, takes a while. I hear some of the high-rarity guns have faster reload speeds but no matter what happens, you should always have another way to fight your way to a clear area."

"High-rarity guns?"

Sinon turned her head, interested in the direction this conversation was going.

"In the beta, there were rumors going around that the developers added more modern weapons to the game," Kirito explained. "Semi-automatics and bolt action rifles. There's ammo for those weapons in the npc stores but no one has managed to find anything that uses that ammunition type. Then there's the story that was going around about 'cursed' weaponry."

Klein suddenly chimed in, "I heard about that. Things like the «Masamune» blade, right?"

Kirito nodded and replied, "That's the only confirmed cursed weapon but I'm certain there must be more. From what I understand, those weapons grow with the user so you don't have to worry about updating your gear when you level up, but that convenience comes at a cost. First, you can't reinforce the weapon to make it stronger and more importantly, you can never switch that weapon out for something more suitable for the situation you're in. It fills an equipment slot permanently. But enough about that, I'm supposed to be teaching you two combat strategies right now."

He hesitated for a moment before opening a trade window with Sinon.

"It's not much, but here's a combat knife that I found on a monster a little while ago," he said. "Better than nothing and even if you don't have the appropriate «Skill», you can equip it and use the most basic «Sword Skills» with it."

"«Sword Skills»?"

Sinon and Klein asked the same question at the same time.

Kirito scratched his head. "I guess I should start from the beginning," he said. "«Sword Skills» are system assisted attacks you can use with melee weapons. They are quicker and stronger than a normal attack that goes through an identical motion. It's hard to explain, but you need to charge the attack and envision how it's going to strike before releasing it. Like this…"

Kirito drew his sword, held it behind himself, and concentrated for a split second. A glowing red light enveloped his blade and he slashed forwards, drawing an arc of crimson light parallel to the ground. A sharp "keen" sound rang through the air.

"That was the «Horizontal» skill," he explained. "«Sword Skills» let you kill enemies a lot easier but there are downsides as well. First, if you're not used to using them, they can take a toll on your ability to focus. They're rather mentally taxing if you use them repeatedly. Also, they create more noise than normal attacks would. That in turn attracts many types of undead. Speaking of which, here comes one now."

Klein immediately rushed forwards shouting, "I've got this!"

Sinon wanted to scream at him, "You idiot, don't make that much noise! You'll bring more here!"

But of course she didn't because that would have drawn more enemies towards them like moths to a flame. Instead, she watched as Klein mimicked Kirito's movements from before but completely failed to initiate a «Sword Skill» due to his haste and exaggerated motions.

Kirito shook his head and called after him, "Lower your stance. Calm down. And _feel_ the energy building before you try to release it."

He turned to Sinon, "Why don't you give it a shot as well? You should be able to use any of the basic skills with that dagger I gave you, but as a piercing type weapon, «Linear» is the best way to go."

Kirito demonstrated the movement for the attack and his blade stabbed forwards, again releasing a sound effect. Another zombie shuffled into view, attracted by the noise.

"Alright, you go ahead and take this one," he said, "I'll check on Klein and make sure he stays alive."

It took Sinon a few attempts, but on her fourth try, she managed to strike out with «Linear». A giddy feeling rose up in her stomach.

"I did it!" she exclaimed before reminding herself that she was destroying the "tough" image she was trying to cultivate.

"Great," came the reply, "now go kill the enemy with it."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Klein cheering and jumping in the air. He had finally managed to dispatch his foe with a well-placed «Horizontal». Sinon turned to face the zombie that was now limping over in her direction.

Try as she might, Sinon couldn't get used to how short the range on her weapon was. It was ridiculous, being able to strike only inches further than arm's reach. But after a few attempts where she overestimated her reach, she managed to connect with «Linear», causing her enemy's health bar to drop down into the red zone. A follow-up swipe from the knife ended the fight. She shuddered at the grotesque expression the zombie took on as it exploded in a shower of pixels. That was something she didn't have to pay attention to when the enemy was further away.

"I think I prefer the gun after all," she declared.

Kirito looked at her, appraising her for a moment before nodding.

"Fair enough," he said, "if you're in a party, I guess the drawbacks of a long reload time become meaningless. Why don't we three hunt for a bit and practice? If you have time, I mean."

With Kirito and Klein as her shields, Sinon found hunting monsters had become infinitely easier. She didn't have to watch her flank as her companions covered her blind spots. Kirito's expertise, Klein's unmatched enthusiasm, and Sinon's accuracy made short work of any undead that crossed their path. The two males gave her impressed looks when she placed a particularly difficult shot; getting a head-shot on a target 100 meters away and half concealed by a low wall. Sinon felt that she might have been able to do better if the gun in her hands had better sights and some way to stabilize its movement; she regretted not purchasing a musket even if it required staying still in order to reload.

Before she knew it, three hours had passed. Klein made a comment about how he had to log off in order to eat the pizza he had ordered. Kirito smiled knowingly and suggested that they break up the party for now before mentioning the possibility of continuing later. Sinon felt a little melancholic when the names of her party members disappeared from the corner of her field of view.

"Hey! Why don't we add each other to our friends list?" Klein suggested. "It'll make meeting up a lot easier."

Sinon thought about it for a moment. It would be easier to party up if that were the case and the three of them had made a good team. But the more she mulled over it, the less certain she was that she wanted to do so. She had joined this game in order to become stronger as an individual; did she really want to start relying on others? After all, there was no telling what might happen if they found out about her past.

Looking over at her other companion, it seemed like Kirito was hesitating as well. But Klein was so enthusiastic about the whole thing that the two of them eventually relented and accepted. Moments later, Sinon's friends list had two names on it; the first friends she had made in the game. Despite her earlier misgivings, she felt strangely happy when looking at those two names.

"Alright then!" Klein exclaimed cheerfully, apparently without caring in the least that his voice would attract even more «Lesser Zombies», "I'll be back after eating. If you're still on, let's meet up again!"

He opened his menu and flipped through the options.

"Eh? There's no log out button," he said.

"That can't be right," Kirito replied, looking over his shoulder, "it should be right there under—"

Sinon felt a spike of panic and checked her own player console. Klein was right; the option to log out was missing. Fortunately, Kirito kept a level head which helped Sinon calm down almost immediately.

"Well, it's the first day of the launch, so I guess there're bound to be one or two bugs that didn't get fixed," he said. "Strange that this happened though, since it wasn't an issue in the beta test."

"Ah man," Klein groaned as he ran a hand through his unkempt hair. "I don't really want to trouble the admins since I'm sure they've gotten a lot of reports about this by now, but I really want to eat that pizza…"

"Just send it in," Kirito replied. "A game master should be able to log you out from within the game but they won't know to do so unless you ask."

Sinon was just about to send her own ticket to the GM complete with her scathing opinion as to what she thought about their competence level when her avatar began to glow.

"What's going on?" she asked as her body suddenly experienced freefall.

"A forced player teleportation?" Kirito mused, his own body lighting up like a Christmas tree. "My guess is that the administrators are going to explain what's going on."

Moments later, Sinon found herself in the town center. All around her, glowing lights signaled the arrival of other players. She looked around for her companions but Kirito and Klein were nowhere to be seen. It seemed that the teleportation destinations were chosen at random. Within a minute, the entire plaza was packed with players. Sinon recalled that 24,000 copies of the game had sold out. Including the beta testers, that meant that there were 25,000 copies of SLD in circulation. Looking around her, it was very likely that every single person who had obtained a copy was now in the town square. A few people started talking with their neighbors in hushed tones, no doubt discussing the strange event that had just occurred.

The sky above darkened dramatically. It wasn't cloud cover or the sun setting. Those would have been "normal." Instead, what appeared to be barely translucent dark blue hexagons, each with a red border and a bright red warning reading «System Message» covered the heavens. More than a few people started screaming when what appeared to be blood started dripping down from the dome that those panels created above their heads. Sinon wasn't one of them, she was too terrified to use her voice.

The dripping liquid coalesced into the form of a robed man just before it reached the rooftops. His face was completely obscured and the tattered robes billowing about him made him seem more like a grim reaper than a game master.

"Players, welcome to my world. I am Kayaba Akihiko," he declared as he pointed a gloved hand at the people gathered in the town center.

Thus started the speech that would change the fates of everyone who was currently logged into the game. Despite how confused she was, Sinon now knew three things from what her brain managed to process.

First, they were all trapped with no hope of outside intervention until the final district was freed from the grasp of the undead.

Second, there was no longer a slap-on-the-wrist penalty for dying. If you died, you died in real life as well.

And finally, the game…was no longer just a game.

At first, the people around her treated the whole announcement as a joke. Of course they would. What else could such conditions imposed upon 25,000 people be considered? To them, it was a prank or a way to make the launch of the game more memorable. A faked inability to log out and a terrifying message to celebrate the grand opening of the world's first VRMMO; a game that fell squarely in the horror genre.

Then came the anger. When they realized that they really weren't able to log out and when the reaper above their heads showed them newscasts from the outside world to convince the players that he was not joking, the players began to jeer and make demands. It soon became clear that their demands to be released fell on deaf ears.

Finally came the denial. Some started crying. Others began to panic, spreading pandemonium to those nearby. Many others desperately pressed at their player menus, hoping to find some secret way to log out. Everything they thought they knew had just suddenly fallen apart. Sinon just stood there, continuing to look at Kayaba Akihiko as he finished what he had to say.

"Lastly, I have granted you all a gift. Please check your inventories for it now."

With more than just a little apprehension, Sinon tapped through her inventory and found a new item that she had never seen before.

"«Looking Glass»?" she mumbled, looking over the item.

A small hand mirror appeared in front of her. Instinctively, she picked it up and peered into it. There, reflected in the oval panel of glass was her face.

Not the tough, battle-scarred face she had carefully crafted in the game's character creation menu. _Her_ face. Asada Shino's fragile visage peered back at Sinon through the looking glass. Delicate features, like those of a porcelain doll. Weak. The opposite of what she wanted to be.

With a start, Sinon realized that her perspective had changed. She felt shorter and glancing at her surroundings confirmed her fears. As she touched her face with her free hand, the image in the mirror copied her motion. Sinon was Asada Shino. Asada Shino was Sinon. The two had become one and the same.

Her illusion of strength was gone. And with despair gnawing at her insides, Sinon realized that the only way to ever leave this nightmare was to play along with Kayaba's rules.

* * *

*notes- This story started as a random desire to write Sinon's character in a SAO fic and as a way to pass the time when I couldn't think of what to write for my crossover. It has since become the longest single chapter I have ever written. Sinon actually happens to be my favorite heroine from the novels. I'm not really sure why. Perhaps it's because she is one of the few people who can counter-troll Kirito. Maybe it has to do with her obsession with overcoming her weakness and the trials she faced in the novels as a result. Or maybe it's something simpler; the visual dichotomy of a small girl with a big effing gun.

But in order for her character to work, ranged weapons are a must. The trouble was balancing those out when compared to melee. That's where the game world comes in. Ranged weapons are separated into two classes, firearms and bows/arbalests. All bows and arbalests deal pierce damage which is fine against lightly armored, fleshy targets but less effective on some enemy types. They also deal less damage per hit than swords would. Guns deal comparable or greater damage than most melee weapons, barring 2-handers. Their weaknesses are the noise level they generate (for PvE) and their long reload time (for group PvP.) Kirito has exploited the last in his duel but whether he'll develop the crazy reflexes required to cut a bullet in half like he did in GGO…well, that remains to be seen.

Few final notes, Sinon isn't dead despite dying twice because she did so before Kayaba's announcement. In order to be fair (and keeping in line with my interpretation of his words in the light novel) resurrection only became impossible _after_ his speech. The next chapter will more than likely correspond to the "Aria" story of the light novels and thus, introduce us to this world's version of Asuna. She probably won't be much different than her light novel incarnation (or else rabid fans will likely try to tear me apart) but expect some changes due to the different setting.


	2. Chapter 2: Meetings

**Chapter 2: Meetings**

Sinon couldn't really recall what she did for the remaining hours of the day after the announcement. She had the vague feeling she rented a room in one of the inns and spent the night huddled on the bed before sleep overtook her in the early hours of the morning. Not the best way to establish her reputation, but she doubted anyone would have noticed anything short of a bomb exploding in their face after Kayaba had presented his message.

The next day, she had a choice to make. The first option was to stay in the starting town, waiting and praying that somehow they would be rescued. The second was that she could accept Kayaba's announcement as reality and work towards clearing the game. In her mind, there was no doubt which of the two "Sinon" would pick. But Asada Shino was a different matter. She mulled over this for half the morning.

Eventually, her dislike of doing nothing and being left behind overrode her insecurities and she set off, burdened by as much gear as she could carry without exceeding her character's «Maximum Weight Limit». Instead of her pistol, she now equipped a musket, having found out to her surprise that her skill level had increased sufficiently during the first day's hunting with Kirito and Klein to use a special accessory alongside that weapon-type; a muzzle clip that allowed her to attach dagger-class weapons just below the mouth of the weapon.

Buying all her new equipment once again put her finances into dire straits. Without a successful hunt, she would not have enough to afford lodgings tonight. But that was part of her plan, to force herself to become strong. To become efficient. To be rid of the weakness that was Asada Shino.

Strapping the combat knife Kirito had given her the day before to her gun, her thoughts turned to the two players who had helped her the day before. Even though their time together had been brief, she hoped the two were doing well. After all, what Kirito had shown her would very likely save her life today. As if to reassure herself, Sinon thrust her weapon out, cutting through the air with a «Linear».

Several bystanders looked towards her momentarily, drawn by the sound effect, before turning away. Sinon had taken a page out of that information dealer's book and had bought a hooded cloak with which she now concealed her face. In a world where the vast majority of players were male, a female player would naturally draw attention. Attention she did not feel like wasting the energy rebuking on this day.

-o-

"Ah, it's stuffy," Sinon complained to herself a half hour into her hunt.

Even though the cloak didn't get in the way of her reloading using the «System Assist», Sinon felt that it hindered her motions. She also felt that it distracted her needlessly whenever she was trying to aim. She needed to find a place where she could move around without worrying about others seeing her face. Looking about, Sinon was surprised by the number of players in the field. She would have thought that more would be cowering in fear after Kayaba's grim declaration.

She shook her head. Of course there would be a lot of players outside. 25,000 players total: Even if only 5% of them took Kayaba's announcement seriously and decided to work towards clearing the game, that would be 1250 players. That wasn't even counting all the players who still thought this was just a bad joke. No doubt all of the good spots to gain experience were taken by now.

Then out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the runoff from the street was running into a large pipe. Something Kirito had said yesterday now came to mind.

"Once a district is clear, you can always continue fighting in the sewers if you need the drops from a certain district. But I wouldn't recommend going in there now. The atmosphere is unnerving if it's your first time and there're enough spots out here for us to hunt."

Well, it couldn't hurt to take a peek, Sinon thought. So long as she took it slow and made sure she wasn't surrounded, there should be no danger. Besides, she was more worried about what players desperate to get an edge over everyone else might resort to than the monsters in the first district. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Sinon stepped into the darkness.

The first thing she noticed was the stench. It reminded her of…actually she couldn't put a name to it; far too many intermingling smells overwhelmed her ability to separate them apart. Grimacing, she turned the scent sensitivity setting on her character all the way down. Kirito had mentioned that it was a good way to detect enemies, but with the sewer masking their scent, that advice wasn't helpful here. Not to mention she couldn't stand it any longer. Once she had accepted the new settings, Sinon cautiously took a small whiff of the air before proceeding further inside.

Ten meters in, the lighting had dimmed considerably. There were torch sconces located at regular intervals, but over half of them were burned out. The sound of water dripping, innocuous from outside, sounded vaguely threatening in the dark.

Progress was slow at first. The ground was slippery, wet, and covered in slime, refuse, and unidentified substances which reflected the pitiful amount of light the torches provided. Sinon winced every time something squelched under her feet; whether it was because she was afraid that the noise would bring enemies down on her head or because she didn't want to think about _what_ it was she had stepped in, she couldn't say for sure.

At least the experience was good. The sewer pipe Sinon was currently navigating was too narrow for more than one enemy to approach at a time. That allowed her to save a lot of ammo by using «Linear» with her bayonet. She was starting to feel good about herself when she realized that she had no idea how far she had wandered. Her map data revealed a confusing mass of twists and turns wherein her path doubled back on itself repeatedly. However, Sinon couldn't recall seeing a familiar looking intersection before. Either she really was walking around in circles and just didn't realize it, or she was progressing deeper and deeper underground.

"Maybe I should backtrack…"

Just as that thought entered her mind, Sinon's stomach began to growl. She took a piece of bread out from her inventory. It was impossible to tell right now, but the thing was dark-grey in color. It wasn't particularly good, consisting of dry texture, bland taste, and the occasional lump that supposedly mimicked eating something made of whole-grains. All in all, not the most delectable of meals, but filling enough when she had eaten it last night. Plus, it was cheap; she was on a budget, after all.

She was halfway through her meal when she heard a nearby splash and a groan. Another zombie? Sinon hastily readied her musket, dropping the remainder of her bread in her rush to arm herself. She made a grab for it as it fell but missed, and it landed on the ground with a plop. Looking down at what was floating in the wastewater alongside her meal, she quickly lost any remaining appetite.

Her irritation mounted. How dare that «Lesser Zombie» ruin her meal like that? Here, far from the eyes of other players, Sinon could act as her emotions dictated without fear of being judged. As the undead that had interrupted her rounded the corner, it was met by a bayonet stab to the eye, followed with Sinon pulling the trigger. The sight of its head exploding in a colorful burst of particles before the rest of the body followed suit did little to salve her annoyance.

That was when she realized just how much noise the gunshot was making as it echoed through the tunnel. She ran, moving as swiftly as she could in order to put some distance between herself and where she had fired the shot. Unfortunately, she slipped while turning a corner and the resulting motion caused her to skid into a downwards angling offshoot pipe.

Sinon grasped desperately to the side as she tumbled down the pipe, trying to slow down. The gesture was useless as there were no available hand holds and she felt herself picking up speed as she rolled along. Feeling the slimy substance that coated the pipe on her skin as she slid only heightened her sense of discomfort.

After what seemed like several minutes, her trip ended when she went flying out the end of the pipe and soared through the air. For a few brief moments, Sinon experienced freefall before the impact with a hard surface rendered her unconscious. Just before she blacked out, she heard the insistent warning sound which signaled that her hit points were at dangerously low levels.

* * *

Kirito made his way through the winding streets of the first district, quickly dispatching any enemies that came his way. The «Lesser Zombies» that inhabited much of the first area were appropriate targets for beginners. Slow and backed by only the most basic of behavioral programming, they were no threat as long as one didn't panic. But they also provided only a paltry amount of experience per kill. Kirito was heading deeper into the first district in order to hunt undead suitable for players two levels above his current one.

The first district featured monsters reaching up to level 7. As you went further into the zone, your chances of encountering higher level monsters increased. Most players would take the slower and safer route of fighting at an area appropriate for their level, but the rewards for those who took a risk were high. Not only were there quest givers in more difficult zones that provided only a limited number of quest offerings, but the monster drops themselves were more useful and valuable than those from lower ranked enemies. A small advantage now could build to become an insurmountable one in the future.

«Rotted Hounds»

Those were the names of his current prey. Each canine had a randomized appearance, such that different parts of their bodies were rotting away. One might have exposed ribs while another permanently showed the teeth on the left side of its face due to decay. Some even had fewer limbs than normal, with the fourth leg rotted away and discarded. Regardless of their appearance, they shared an affinity for pack behavior. It was rare to encounter them in groups of less than four. They also happened to be the target for the quest Kirito was doing, «_As Faithful in Life»._

The quest-giver was an old explorer who lamented losing his faithful dog in the ruins of the city years ago. If Kirito was able to find and retrieve the collar of his companion, the wizened old man, now too weak to go searching on his own, would reward him with an appropriate piece of equipment from his adventuring days.

This particular quest wasn't too difficult to do, but the starting point was difficult to find if you didn't know where to look. Also, few players would be coming this deep into the first district on the day immediately after Kayaba's announcement. Those two factors combined meant that Kirito had the area all to himself, making his hunt less competitive, but also exponentially more dangerous. Or he would have had the area all to himself, if it weren't for—

"I didn't expect to find anyone else here."

The young man, maybe one or two years older than himself, who had interrupted Kirito's session about half an hour in. He wore the same light armor Kirito had on and carried the cheapest long sword available in the starting town sheathed at his side. The air of confidence around him told Kirito that this person knew what he was doing in coming out this far into the first district alone.

"Neither did I," Kirito replied, narrowing his eyes slightly.

The older boy, taking Kirito's expression to be hostile, held up his hands and chuckled.

"Whoa there, no need to be suspicious," he said with a smile that did not reach his eyes. "I'm probably here for the same reason as you. You know, that quest for the old man. I don't mean you any harm."

Kirito relaxed a little but kept on guard. If the boy in front of him knew to come here for this quest, it was likely that he too had been a beta tester. The odds of stumbling upon the old man by chance, hidden away on the third floor of a run-down home no different than any of the other dozen houses on the street, were astronomically low.

"And? What do you want?" Kirito asked.

The older boy chuckled again, as if his show of amusement would diffuse the tension between the two. "I was hoping we could work together to complete this quest. After all, it's safer to fight as a group, right?"

"No need," Kirito replied. "Only the person who gets the kill will get the drop. Working together will only cause unwanted strife in the end."

"Alright," the stranger answered, holding his hand out. "If that's what you want. But let's hunt in the same area so that we can look out for one another if needed. And no hard feelings to whoever gets the first kill on the collared mob, ok?"

Even though he was still wary of the other player, Kirito saw no reason to object and shook his hand.

"Oh! Didn't mean to be rude," the other boy exclaimed, making a show of politeness, "I'm Coper."

Kirito hesitated to give his real name, but felt uncomfortable working with an alias. "I'm Kirito."

Coper looked stunned at the name for a second before regaining his composure. "Well then Kirito-kun, best of luck to you."

True to his word, Coper stayed close enough to keep enemies from taking Kirito's back, but far enough away that the two of them weren't competing for the same pool of monsters. Despite himself, Kirito found himself admiring how efficiently the other boy was dispatching his foes.

«Rotted Hounds» were much more dangerous than the «Lesser Zombies» he had been hunting alongside Klein and Sinon yesterday. The ones that still had all four limbs attached were far faster than the humanoid zombies located closer to the starting point. They used that speed to their advantage, using hit-and-run tactics which would frustrate those who were unused to fighting them. But their most dangerous aspect was an ability to cripple their prey. They were the first enemies one usually encountered in «Aincrad» that would actively try to debuff players; a bite to the back of the leg could inflict a «Slow» effect, halving the victim's movement speed until it was removed. For a solo player, this debuff could prove fatal.

About an hour into their session, a furious howl echoed from the alleyway to Kirito's left. Dispatching his current foe with a quick sidestep and a «Vertical», Kirito turned to meet this new threat. Another pack of five was heading his way, led by a slightly larger beast. Slavering and drooling as it ran, the leader's red eyes glowed menacingly in the dark. Kirito caught sight of something glinting at its throat, a small metal tag that told him this was the target of his quest. He lowered his stance to meet his enemy head-on.

Roughly two minutes later, the hound gave one last whimper before collapsing to the ground. The leader had been the last to die. As the sparkles from its «Death Effect» shimmered in the air, Kirito checked the loot drop to make sure he had the item required to turn in to the old man.

«Wan-chan's Collar»

Despite himself, Kirito couldn't help but laugh. It was just too difficult to picture anyone calling the crazed beast from before a cutesy name like "Wan-chan," let alone that old quest-giver.

"Sorry, but it looks like I'll be leaving first," Kirito called out to Coper.

The other boy looked over to him in surprise. The surprise was replaced in a moment with something Kirito couldn't identify and subsequently with a look of resignation.

"I'm sorry too," he said, barely audible to Kirito's ears. He lifted something in his free hand. Before he could identify what it was, the other boy hurled the item to the ground where it exploded with a loud bang and a burst of smoke.

Kirito recovered from his shock almost immediately. The item that Coper had used was named «Smoke-screen». As its name suggested, it created a confusing burst that helped to conceal its user. But in a game where enemies were attracted primarily by sound, it had unintended effects in the field. «Smoke-screen» was nicknamed something else by the beta testers after those effects were discovered. Because it attracted enemies while simultaneously allowing the user to hide, it was derisively called «MPK's Best Friend» by players.

Monster Player-Killing, abbreviated MPK, involved luring enough monsters in to an area to overwhelm the intended victim. Afterwards, the perpetrator could kill the «Player Zombie» that arose for more valuable loot. While it was regarded as a highly frowned upon practice by the player community, there were few enough incidences of this occurring during the beta period that nothing was done to prevent it. But in a game where the rules had changed, it seemed that there were those desperate enough for an edge that they were willing to use it.

Kirito gritted his teeth and ran for the nearest building. Coper was trying to kill him. That he had the resolve to do so showed not only the older boy's determination to survive, but his willingness to do so at the expense of others. Kirito was too shocked to be angry. More than anything, he was annoyed at himself for actually giving some measure of trust to someone else. He now recalled another reason why he had preferred playing as a solo during the beta test. You didn't have to worry about being backstabbed if there was no one at your back to begin with.

As he had suspected, Coper's player indicator had disappeared from his vision. But knowing what the other player intended, Kirito suspected he was hiding nearby. Just before entering the shelter he had reached, Kirito turned towards the last direction he had seen Coper's green indicator.

"To think that there were players willing to resort to MPK'ing this early on after Kayaba's announcement," Kirito called out, knowing Coper was listening in. "You know, I can actually respect that sort of will to live. It might even have worked, if it weren't for two factors. First, while «Rotted Hounds» eventually wander around and scatter around this area, their spawn point is close to where you were killing them."

Indeed, several howls could be heard from the direction Kirito was speaking towards; the sound of new monsters entering the world.

"And second," Kirito concluded, turning and opening the door in front of him, "while most zombie-type monsters are attracted by sound alone, «Rotted Hounds» are one exception. They're far more likely to go after strong scents. And the stench of smoke is heavy on your clothes right now…"

Kirito closed the door and barricaded it behind him just as the growls and screaming commenced.

* * *

Sinon regained consciousness slowly with a loud, repetitive, and annoying sound ringing out from somewhere in the distance. "Give me five more minutes," she mumbled as she fumbled around for the snooze button on her alarm clock. It wasn't until her hand had struck hard stone that she realized that she was not in the real world and that she wasn't laying atop her bed. The sound she had been hearing was the warning that her hit points were low and she was currently on a small ledge near the top of a large cave. Groaning, she sat up and drank a health potion. After a few moments, the warning signal stopped as her health bar changed from red to yellow and finally to green.

She took note of her surroundings. Above and across from her was a sewage pipe, most likely the one she had fallen from. Looking down below her into the darkness, it was lucky she had hit this ledge rather than fallen all the way down. The floor was too far away to see. As she strained her eyes, a sickly green light flared up from beneath her. It flickered and danced about. It resembled the ghost lights that fans of the paranormal often claimed to see around cemeteries at night.

"A hitodama?" Sinon wondered, although the color was different from the usual depictions.

More soon joined the first and the cavern floor below was illuminated in an eerie sea-green light. The bottom must have been at least 40 meters away, too far to drop down safely. Not that Sinon would have wanted to, considering what rested at the center.

The beast slumbering there was roughly the size of a bus. It resembled a wolf or rather, what a wolf might look like if someone had torched its hindquarters, stuck its head in a grinder, and left the body to rot. Sinon held her breath, hoping that it wouldn't wake up. Of course, this being the type of game it was, she had no such luck.

It opened its golden eyes slowly, blinking as its pupils narrowed in response to the dancing lights atop its head. It then picked itself up off the ground with deliberate slowness, looking about the room before spotting Sinon perched atop the narrow ledge. The beast raised its head high and roared; shaking the cavern around it to such a degree that Sinon was afraid that the entire area would collapse in on itself.

A name appeared atop the monstrosity's head as Sinon focused on it. «Fenris the Devourer». Three health bars then appeared underneath the name. Although Sinon had no idea what this meant, she knew it couldn't be good news.

«Fenris» roared again and charged, leaping at Sinon's position. It collided with the rocky wall halfway up with a resounding thud and fell back to the ground. Sinon stumbled a little with the tremor from the impact, but was otherwise fine. The beast scrambled at the wall, unable to reach her. Once she had gotten over her initial shock, Sinon picked up her musket and kneeled down in a stable firing position.

"If I'm going to die here," she said to herself. "I'm not going down without a fight."

Looking down the barrel, she took aim. Her field of vision narrowed and a red cone appeared from the front of the gun, pointing in the direction of her aim. The diameter of the cone increased when her heart beat and shrank during the time in between.

Sinon took a deep breath and calmed herself. Cold as ice, she told herself. Look for a weak point before shooting. She saw it; where the forelegs joined the body, «Fenris»'s hide was rotted away to reveal a pulsating mass. Sinon pulled the trigger and felt the kick of the musket as the recoil hit. A thunderous clap echoed throughout the chamber and with unerring precision, her bullet struck home. The massive wolf gave a howl of rage and tackled the wall again in a futile effort to reach its attacker.

-o-

*Bang*

Sinon opened her equipment menu and added more ammunition from her inventory to her ammo pouch. It was odd that items had no weight until they were materialized or equipped, but Sinon wasn't complaining as it allowed her to carry much more with her than if the alternative were true.

She had lost track of how long she had been locked in battle with the berserk wolf. It had to have been at least two hours. She could fire at a rate of once every fifteen seconds, which included the time for reloading and aiming. Taking into account that she had brought over a thousand bullets with her and had now depleted all but one hundred, it had been a long battle indeed. Slowly but surely, Sinon had whittled away all three of «Fenris»'s health bars. Only a single sliver of health remained. She was the eye of the storm. She was ice. _Sinon was death_. She pulled the trigger once more.

With one final roar of defiance, the great wolf fell. A congratulatory tone played out of nowhere alongside a message which read « You got the Last Attack! » in English. Sinon felt numb, her hand operating independently of her mind as it accepted the spoils of her battle. She didn't even look through the items that she had received due to her exhaustion. She rolled onto her back, her musket falling silently to the ground beside her. With a laugh meant only for her own ears, she closed her eyes. Cold as ice, she thought to herself. That was the key to changing from the frail Asada Shino to the warrior Sinon.

-o-

She awoke feeling very refreshed despite the terrible sleeping arrangement. Sinon accessed her map data for the first time since falling into the cavern and found that she had no idea where she was. The cavern below had many entrances, but none seemed linked to the path she had taken to get there. But her first problem was how to get down from the ledge. The face of the wall looked rough enough to provide handholds and she decided that climbing down seemed a lot safer than jumping.

As she carefully inched her way downwards, keeping an eye out for enemy movement, Sinon marveled at how much easier it was to do this in the game than it was in real life. She had tried rock-climbing once before and it had not been a fun experience at all. Within minutes, she was back on solid ground and faced with another dilemma. How was she going to get out of here? There were just too many exits to choose from and any one of them might lead her back to the surface…or deeper underground. She shuddered at the thought of the latter, realizing that she barely had any ammunition left.

In the end, she chose her path by closing her eyes and spinning in a circle. It wasn't the best of methods, but Sinon couldn't afford to be indecisive. She was happy to note that the ground seemed to be sloped upwards and even happier when she realized that there weren't any enemies. At least, until she rounded a corner and bumped into something.

"Waah!" she screamed, thrusting her musket out with the motion that would initiate «Linear». That is, if she hadn't been so startled that the «Sword Skill» failed to activate.

Her target only gave the blade of the bayonet a dismissive glance as it passed by centimeters away from his chest. With her heart pounding away so loudly that it resembled a drum to her ears; Sinon realized that it was another player.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled an apology as best she could. "I thought you were—"

"Don't worry about it," the man replied in a deep baritone. "This deep into the sewers, I'm not surprised you lashed out. Not much else except for the undead around here. Though I suppose you should count yourself lucky you missed. Wouldn't want your player indicator to turn orange now, would you?"

An orange player indicator; a mark showing that its owner had committed some sort of crime against another player. Sinon shuddered to think of what the reaction might be if she walked into town with _that_ atop her head. Now that she had calmed down, she noted the appearance of the other player for the first time.

He had sleek gray hair tied back in a short pony-tail and wore heavy armor that left his muscled arms exposed. His other equipment consisted of a basic long sword and a kite shield. But what was remarkable about him wasn't his gear, but the man himself. The person before her exuded a self-confidence that Sinon wished she had; the way he carried himself told her that he did not consider anything in this underground labyrinth a threat. _I'd bet he could go toe-to-toe with that monster I fought and come out on top without breaking a sweat_, Sinon thought.

"That being said," the man continued. "What are you doing this deep in the sewers? I didn't expect to find anyone here. Anyone alive, that is."

"I—um…got lost," Sinon answered sheepishly.

Sinon immediately gave herself a mental kick in the rear. Why was she being so demure? Sure, the man in front of her gave off an air of command that all but demanded subservience, but Sinon had never let that affect her even in real life. As if making up for her earlier show of weakness, Sinon focused her stare into a narrow glare.

"You got lost," the man repeated, sounding amused rather than annoyed by her rudeness. He had an almost fatherly quality to his smile now. "Well, if you would like, I can show you the way out. I was just about to return to the town myself and if you don't mind, doing so in the presence of company would not be unpleasant."

Normally, Sinon would have declined. But after the mishap that had landed her here, she was willing to rely on someone else if it got her out of this mess.

"Well then, I'll be relying on you to watch my back on the way out," the man continued, taking Sinon's silence for acceptance. "You may call me Heathcliff."

He strolled off into the dimly light tunnel, not waiting for Sinon to answer, nor looking behind to see if she was following.

* * *

It was now one month into the death game.

"Damn it," Kirito muttered as he looked at the «Monument of Life».

With the faint noise of stone chipping away, a horizontal line drew itself from left to right across another name. Moments later, the cause of death appeared beside the unfamiliar name. «Died from fall damage». Kirito sighed to himself; yet another suicide. He checked over his gear and gave the monument one last look before turning on his heels and heading out.

The name of every player in the game was listed on that monument. Kirito made it a point to go and take a look at it every few days in order to remind himself of what was at stake. Only thirty days into the game, 2800 names were already crossed out. The players were no closer to killing the boss of the first district than they had been on the first day.

This time around, Kirito set out for an area deeper into the first district than he had gone before. He was now level 11, strong enough to take on anything short of the district boss on his own. But there was still the matter of developing a large enough safety net so that entering hostile territory would be less dangerous. During the beta, the rule of thumb was that so long as you were 5 levels above the district you were in, you stood a good chance of surviving even if alone. But the beta was a joke compared to how the game was now. A "good chance of surviving" wasn't good enough. So Kirito had made up his mind to keep at least 10 levels above the district number with the possibility of increasing that difference even further in the future.

Kirito ducked down and moved along the street. Even though he hadn't been able to get the «Sneaking» skill yet since it required a certain proficiency in «Hiding» first, he felt compelled to move as silently and swiftly as possible. He had also taken the «Searching» skill which helped him locate monsters and hidden resource nodes such as safe-boxes.

The decrepit buildings around him provided plenty of cover, but Kirito didn't need to worry about being seen. It was being heard that was the main danger in the first district. As he dashed by one of the few unbroken windows on this street, he caught a glimpse of his own reflection.

For the hundredth time since Kayaba had made his announcement, Kirito both marveled at the sheer ingenuity of the man's final "gift" and cursed him for what he had done. His face was no longer that of the nondescript warrior he had chosen to carry over from the beta test. Instead, his features contained little enough to suggest that he was male such that, were he to change his hairstyle, he might be mistaken for a girl. The reason why he had cursed Kayaba was because his current appearance in the game was far more remarkable than the one he had wanted.

As for the reason why he marveled at Kayaba Akihiko's brilliance? By ensuring that all players had their appearance in real life within the game as well, he had all but eliminated the anonymity factor from his world. Coupled with the novelty of being fully immersed in the game, courtesy of the ground-breaking virtual reality technology of the «Nerve Gear» system, the game had become a second reality. For every action, there were consequences. This was not an MMO where you could hide behind your avatar, able to act as you like because you were shielded from any real harm.

Consequences. Kirito gritted his teeth, trying hard not to remember. Immediately after the gme had started, he had sought out Klein and Sinon in order to ask them to travel with him to the best spots and gather resources. He hadn't been able to find Sinon, but Klein had declined his offer, citing a need to help his real life friends so that they too would gain a better chance at survival. Travelling as a large group would not have worked for Kirito; the resources would have ended up spread out too thinly. Kirito had left for the first district alone that day, leaving Klein behind. The next day, he had spent an hour in front of the «Memorial of Life» in order to find Klein and Sinon's names. To his relief, neither had been crossed out yet. But he couldn't help but think: "What if one day I went and found out one or both had died?" Would he be able to deal with the guilt at having abandoned them to the mercy of this world?

«Lesser Zombie: Weiss»

A monster bearing a two-handed broadsword and wearing what appeared to be a set of leather armor shuffled into view, interrupting his thoughts. It wasn't an ordinary monster. Monsters bearing names were the reanimated corpses of players killed in battle. They carried all the items the player had upon death, despawned after a day, and had a moderate chance of dropping a certain number of items from their inventory upon their defeat. In the beta version, there had been several reports of players exploiting this feature; putting all but a single desirable item into their storage and then getting killed on purpose in order to farm that particular item. Needless to say, very few people were stupid enough to try that now.

Kirito grimaced as he drew his sword. His enemy had once been a player just like himself. Killing it just felt too much like PK'ing for Kirito to enjoy it. This deep into the first district, it was likely that the one he faced now was a beta tester who remembered the area as an excellent farming spot but then fell prey to his own overconfidence.

Reanimated players were more dangerous than normal monsters and were capable of using «Sword Skills», something that wouldn't be encountered in non-boss class monsters until the 4th floor. For the average player, it might have been better to run when encountering one. Kirito, however, merely lowered his stance and charged the enemy. This was no different than a duel, he told himself.

About a minute later, «Lesser Zombie: Weiss» groaned piteously as he dissolved into the air. Kirito himself had taken no damage aside from the unmitigated damage resulting from blocking a skill. The boy bowed his head briefly in a silent prayer for the player who had become that monster before sheathing his weapon, confirming the item drops and experience, and running off before the sound of his battle attracted too much attention from nearby «Creepers».

His day continued without anything notable occurring until just after his afternoon break.

As he rounded a corner at the very edge of the mapping data he had gathered thus far, Kirito thought he heard something. The sharp sound of a blade cutting through the air. He paused for a moment, straining his ears. He heard it again, faint enough to just barely be audible, but just being able to hear it was enough to let him know that it wouldn't take long to check out the source.

As he neared the source of the sound, Kirito noted that there was an increasingly short interval between attack noises. Whoever was fighting was obviously starting to have a hard time. Kirito picked up the pace, wondering why it was that he was rushing to the aid of a stranger. If he had to think back on it, the reason he would give would have to be **because his gut told him this was important**.

As he had suspected, there was a large crowd of «Lesser Zombies» cornering what appeared to be a solo player. Kirito ran into the fray, lashing out with his «Sword Skills» as quickly as he could. The foes before him, well beneath his level by now, fell like wheat beneath his blade. In short order, he had cleared a path to the center where he finally came face to face with the person who had been fighting this horde alone. Well, not face to face per say, since that person was wearing a cloak that concealed his or her face and figure.

"Who are you?" the figure demanded. Despite the tone of annoyance in that voice, it was clear and melodious. The voice was also unmistakably female.

_What is it with girls in this game and cloaks?_ Kirito wondered to himself as he stooped slightly to try and catch a glimpse of her face. He was startled by something flying past his face so quickly that he couldn't catch sight of it. His hair flew back with the wind generated by its trajectory.

The girl had extended her arm more quickly than he could follow in what was unmistakably the «Linear» skill. It was beautifully executed, both fast and precise. In fact, two centimeters more to the right and it would have clipped his ear.

"Tch."

The girl made a noise of dissatisfaction and pulled back her weapon, switching it seamlessly with the pistol at her hip. She drew this without hesitation and pointed it at Kirito who quickly ducked out of the way to the side. The «Lesser Zombie» behind him exploded in a colorful shower.

Casually reloading her weapon as if there weren't about three dozen more hungry undead gathered nearby, the girl turned towards Kirito and asked again, "Who are you?"

"We don't have time for that," Kirito replied urgently. "I'll answer your questions later. But for now, just follow me. I know of a safe area nearby."

"I'm not going anywhere," she insisted. "And certainly not with a stranger. I can handle myself just fine against these «Lesser Zombies». Besides, you're interfering with my—"

"Fine then," Kirito answered. "Suit yourself. But just so you know, you're deep enough in the first district that «Lesser Zombies» will be the least of your worries. It's the «Shambling Horrors» you need to watch out for. They're hulking armored beasts. As fast as your «Linear» skill is, it won't do much damage once their hide absorbs the impact."

"I still have my pistol."

Kirito stalked off without a word. Moments later, he heard the sound of hurried footsteps following behind. It seemed that she wasn't so confident in her ability to survive alone after all.

"Hey, wait up!" she exclaimed. "Or at least slow down."

"I thought you still had your pistol?" Kirito couldn't resist commenting.

The reply was so quiet Kirito could barely hear it, but her answer made him grin despite the seriousness of their current situation.

"I only have two shots left…"

-o-

"Ah, before you get the wrong idea, I don't usually go inviting girls I've just met to my room," Kirito said, feeling the need to explain this to the girl who had been trying to glare a hole in his back the whole way here. He didn't actually see her eyes, but he had felt an inexplicable pressure during the trip that couldn't have come from any other source.

"Right," the girl said, dragging out the word so that he knew without a doubt that she didn't take his word for it. "I suppose you'll be saying next that you don't usually like to play knight in shining armor."

Kirito sighed. This just wasn't his day. He hadn't actually expected thanks from her, but in some ways, this person was more draining to spend time with than Argo. Instead of replying, he accessed the menu for the door in front of him and unlocked it.

"Home sweet safe-house," he said, lighting a lamp in the corner.

"Uwah…"

The girl stepped inside and looked around. Although he couldn't see her eyes, Kirito tried to imagine her staring in awe, if only to bolster his pride a little.

"You're pretty bad about cleaning up after yourself aren't you?"

His illusion didn't even last five seconds.

"What?" he sputtered, frantically looking around.

Sure, there were empty food wrappers lying around, but those should lose their durability and disappear on their own any day now. And the run-down griminess had come with the room, free of charge. Kirito thought it added to the ambience and kept him more on guard. He had also gotten used to the smell quite quickly. Besides, a safe-house was a temporary thing, meant to make it more convenient to travel to one's usual hunting grounds without having to return to town. He wasn't actually going to live here forever.

"Alright, you said you would answer my questions if I came," the girl interrupted. "I'm here now so I'll ask you for the last time. Who are you and why did you interfere?"

From the thin set to her lips, Kirito figured that he had best comply. Otherwise, he might just find himself facing the business end of that lightning fast «Linear» once again.

* * *

*notes: Alright, managed to finish this before the end of the weekend somehow. A lot going on but not much that I'd care to explain since it should be in what's written already or it'd ruin some things for the future if I go into depth about it.

Asuna in this world is a bit more abrasive than her SAO counterpart but not by too large of a factor. Kirito's also a little grittier than in canon as evidenced by his reaction to almost being MPK'ed. Living in a world where there's a pseudo-zombie epidemic going on will do that to you. Regarding Asuna's overall character design, I decided to keep the rapier since that's her signature weapon, but I added the pistol as a side-arm since the setting allowed for it. The image I am aiming for is akin to that of a Musketeer as they're romanticized in film.

Until next time and happy holidays to you all.


	3. Chapter 3: Beater

**Chapter 3: Beater**

_How did things turn out like this?_

Kirito stared at the wall, summoning all his willpower to keep from looking in the direction from which the sound of soft snoring could be heard. Because knowing his luck, the moment his determination broke, he would experience hell.

He occupied himself by thinking back on the day's events as he tried to go to sleep.

-o-

"So you're saying you only came to help on a whim?" the girl sitting on the worn-out couch asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"Not quite a whim," Kirito replied from his position on the floor. He shifted around a bit until settling down in a cross-legged seating arrangement. "More like my instincts were saying it would be good to do so. Play enough games and you start to get a feel for what might be an important flag."

"A flag…" she repeated slowly.

"Ah no! I didn't mean it that way!" Kirito responded quickly. He did not need her thinking that he thought of rescuing a player as akin to a quest event and he most certainly did not want her thinking he played the other genre of games where the term "flag" was common. After all, he had never had any interest in galges even though he was now at the age where his classmates in school would trade and lend their "collections" in secret during break.

Thankfully, she didn't seem to make an unwarranted connection. Instead, the corners of her mouth turned upwards slightly as she said, "I guess that means I don't have to feel obligated to thank you for your assistance."

"Well, it would help boost my self-esteem a little," Kirito suggested.

"What?" The girl did a double-take before noticing the grin on his face. "Oh, that was a joke," she stated as if there was someone around who needed it explained to. She giggled a bit at herself for not catching on sooner. To Kirito's ears, the sound was more beautiful than any music he had ever heard before.

"I'm sorry I was short with you when we first met," the girl continued. "It's just that—I kept hoping that someone in the outside world would have done something about Kayaba Akihiko by now and… I can't stand being trapped here anymore. There's no future here and it feels like every second I spend here is wasted. The players didn't even clear the first district yet! The conditions for leaving are impossible! Clear the final district? Ridiculous! This world is a death sentence anyways. I figured I might as well just die on my own terms and go out fighting until the last. At least that way, they can say during my—my funeral—that I—"

Her words stalled at this point and she looked up at Kirito from behind her hood as if just realizing that she had started to share her greatest concerns and deepest fears with someone she had met a bit over an hour ago. She brought her knees up onto the couch and hugged them to her chest as if that action would shield her from having to hear an insincere reply. Kirito, for his part, just sat there listening to her the entire time. There was a heavy silence between the two of them.

"Well? Say something…"

Kirito was glad for an excuse to break the silence, but he really had no idea what she wanted from him. Comfort? Reassurance? Vindication that her way of thinking was right? He had never been what would be considered a socially active person and now he was being pushed to the limit of his interpersonal skills. He struggled with himself for a moment, an act that was plainly visible to the girl sitting across from him, before slumping his shoulders. He would answer with his honest thoughts. That was the best he could do.

"Well, it's true that the first district hasn't been cleared even after a month and I have to agree that things right now are looking pretty bleak from that standpoint alone. But impossible? I don't think that's the case. You said that every second you spent here feels like a waste, but that's not true. In that time, you've taken the «Linear» skill to such a level that it's become artwork. I'm sure that strength will bring hope to other players in the future. It may sound selfish of me to say this, but don't think about throwing your life away so easily. Your life in this world has as much meaning as you're willing to give it."

Kirito stopped talking and looked down at his hands for a while. Thoughts frantically ran through his head. _Did I sound too pompous? What if she is right? After all, the furthest anyone ever got in the beta was the 9__th__ district._

"Well, let's take things easy for now," Kirito said, more to clear his own thoughts than to reassure the girl that everything would be alright. "No use fighting on an empty stomach. Why don't I boil some water and we'll have some noodles. My treat."

Kirito set up a portable stove on the ground in front of him, placed a kettle on top, and let it sit. He then took out a pot from his inventory and placed what would be two blocks of instant noodles in the real world into it.

"Ah, sorry to bother you after saying it'll be my treat," Kirito said. "I'll be back soon. I just want to take a quick bath. If the water's ready, feel free to get started without me. Oh, and add this to the noodles."

He placed a bottle containing a reddish sauce on the floor next to the stove.

"What did you say?"

Before Kirito could react, the girl had jumped up from the couch, flown across the room, hopped over the kettle and stove, and grabbed Kirito by the collar.

"Add the sauce to the noodles?"

"Before that."

"Feel free to eat without me?"

The corners of the girl's mouth turned downwards slightly in annoyance, "No, before _that_."

"I want to take a bath?"

Even though she was slightly shorter than him, the intimidating aura she was exuding made her seem a half meter taller.

"I wasn't just hearing things, right?" she asked.

"No, you weren't."

"You really have a bathroom here?"

Kirito could tell where this conversation was leading. He decided to pre-empt her request and asked, "I was planning on using it, but I can wait until later. Would you care to use it?

"Can I?"

The girl was practically squealing with joy at such a simple thing that it was hard to believe how down she had looked earlier. She released Kirito's collar, allowing him to ease back on his heels, and looked at him with bright eyes. Even past the hood which obscured her features, he noticed how beautiful they were. They were hazel.

"Sure, it's through that door. You won't be able to lock the door since this isn't your safe-house, but I give you my word that I won't go anywhere near it while you're inside."

"You'd better not," she replied, sharper than her rapier's point. And, eyes still shining like gemstones, she twirled around and was through the door before Kirito could utter another word.

Kirito smiled and poked at the kettle with a stick. _It really was nice that she was feeling better, _he thought. That gave him pause. Since when did he start caring about what others felt? That wasn't like him at all. He had chosen to leave his friends behind on the first day so that he wouldn't be held back. He was concerned only about his own well-being— right?

Just as Kirito finished dividing the noodles into two bowls and adding the sauce on top, there was a knock at his door. His first reaction was panic. There was only one person other than himself and Asuna who knew he had a safe-house at this location. That person would also be the most likely candidate to cause him grief if it were discovered that he had a female guest at his place no matter how valid his excuse was. Which brought him to his second reaction.

_Find an escape route_, he thought desperately. The windows were boarded up, but he could probably break through them. That would just leave the fall from the third story to contend with and a frantic dash through zombie-infested territory with a rapidly darkening sky above in order to reach the safety of the starting town. Kirito wished that this option didn't sound as appealing as it did.

"Hey Ki-bou, open up."

In this game, only certain noises could be heard through a closed door. A loud voice, that is, a «Shout», was one of them.

"I know you're in there, Ki-bou. I see you on my friend trace."

Damn. No other option. Kirito reluctantly walked over to the door and unlocked it. There, standing outside with her fist upraised to knock on his door once more, stood Argo. She grinned when she saw his face and walked inside without waiting for an invitation.

"What kept you Ki-bou? Oh! I know— I bet you were up to something naughty…" she said as she plopped down on the couch.

"That's a bet you'll lose," Kirito answered, returning to the bowls he had left on the ground. He set one down in front of Argo. Now that it had come to this, perhaps he could distract her with something to eat. He would have to make another bowl later. "So what brings you here, Argo? You've been dropping by a lot lately."

Ever since Kirito had secured a safe-house with a bathroom, Argo had been coming around frequently under the pretense of selling information and "visiting a dear friend." Of course, she coincidentally requested use of the bath every time as well.

Kirito must have been looking at the door nervously, because Argo chuckled and reassured him that she actually had business this time around. "Kirito," she said seriously. "You missed the district boss planning meeting."

Kirito looked up in shock. Almost choking on a mouthful of noodles, he replied, "That was _today_? Eh—I completely forgot about it with everything that—Never mind. What'd I miss out on Argo?"

"I can't believe you…I told you that it was today when I visited two days ago," Argo said with an exaggerated sigh. "Well, the main thing you missed was setting up the parties."

_Ah, damn_, Kirito thought. He could still join in as a solo or try to find a group that hadn't been filled out yet, but the first was not preferable since he would have no backup at all during the boss fight and the second was…not something Kirito wanted to do. More than likely, the party members were already used to one another and adding in a new member out of the blue would throw the group dynamics off.

"I guess there's no helping it," Kirito mumbled. "Maybe I'll just sit this one out."

"What? Giving up already?" Argo asked. "That's not like the Ki-bou I knew. You always were trying to be the first one to do anything during the—"

She stopped talking at that moment. Although the two knew each other's identity as beta testers, lately there had been a popular movement building against former testers. Since they couldn't be sure they wouldn't be overheard, it had became an unspoken agreement between the two of them to never mention the beta test.

"Well, that was then and this is now," Kirito replied, covering up Argo's near slip of her tongue. "But what else was there? The meeting was supposed to last half an hour, I'm sure more happened. And who's the one who arranged for the meeting to begin with?"

"Some guy name Diabel. I don't have much on him, but he's definitely charismatic. He seems like a decent enough raid leader," Argo answered. "Oh, and some idiot named Kiba-ou or something like that was trying to incite everyone against beta players during the meeting. Thankfully _that_ got averted, but you should watch out for him Ki-bou. Can't miss him, he has this ridiculous hairstyle; almost like his head is trying to morph into a cactus."

Kirito thought about that for a moment. True, the people who resented beta testers had a few valid points. After all, there had been many beta testers who left the new players behind to fend for themselves right from the start. Kirito wasn't proud of it, but he fell squarely into that category. But for every beta tester who didn't help out, there was one who did.

"I'll keep that in mind," Kirito said after a moment. He got up to boil some more water. "It's probably not the best idea, but I guess it's time for me to start doing my part to help as well. No choice but to join the raid as a solo."

"I'm disappointed in you Ki-bou," Argo said all of a sudden.

"Huh? What?" Kirito looked back in surprise.

"You didn't even ask me if I wanted to join your party…and I thought we were such good friends too," Argo chided him as she leaped to her feet.

"Wait… I thought you weren't interested in fighting bosses," Kirito protested. "You never showed any interest in it back—"

He stopped speaking, realizing he had almost said the taboo word.

"That was then and this is now," Argo replied with a wry grin. "So? Are you going to offer or not? It's rude to make a girl do the asking, you know."

Kirito closed his jaw which had fallen wide open under Argo's surprise attack. When he finally managed to speak, he was surprised that he didn't stumble over the words more than he did.

"Nihihi," Argo laughed. "You could use a little work on asking for favors. But I accept. I'll even forgive you for being a blockhead for the low price of borrowing your bath."

Before Kirito could protest and let her know that the room already had an occupant, Argo winked at him and closed the door shut behind her. 5 seconds passed… 10 seconds passed…

"Nyaaa!"

A cry of surprise loud enough to register as a «Shout» was heard through the door.

"Kyaaaaa!"

It was followed by an equally loud scream as the door burst open and something flew out at a tremendous speed. Kirito caught sight of a brown cloak and slender pink legs before their owner tripped over his portable stove and barreled into him headfirst. His head hit the floor hard and just before he slipped into a semi-conscious state, Kirito was aware of something soft pressed against his face and the scent of perfumed soap.

-o-

Kirito gave a small groan as he opened his eyes. The cracked plaster of his ceiling slowly came into focus along with Argo's grinning face. To the boy, the smile plastered on her face was not a pleasant sight. It was a smirk that, on anyone else, would have meant trouble for him. Seeing that look on Argo though, Kirito felt that he would rather face the district boss alone right now than stay in the same room as her.

"So Ki-bou, how was your trip to paradise?" she asked. If anything, her grin widened even more.

"Paradise?" Kirito questioned, working his brain in an effort to remember what the word meant. He looked around the room, willing it to stop spinning around.

Argo gave him a pitying look. "You don't _remember_? Well, let me just say that it was quite the sight. You sprawled out on the floor with—"

"Don't say it!"

The voice that cried out despairingly belonged, obviously, to the cloaked girl who had the misfortune of having Argo walk in on her bath.

"But you two looked so adorable there," Argo teased her.

"I don't want to hear it! I _can't_ hear it! I can't hear _you!_" the girl said frantically as she covered where her ears would be under her hood and shook her head from side to side.

More to have something to do than anything else, Kirito replaced the kettle on top of the stove. From Argo's words, he had an inkling of what might have happened and his face heated up just thinking about it. Luckily, he had his back turned to the two girls so they didn't notice.

But of course, Argo wouldn't leave him alone after what she had just witnessed. Before he knew it, she had snuck up behind him and was whispering in his ear, "Still, Ki-bou. You're quite the player aren't you? Having two girls over at your place at the same time…"

It wasn't until he took a page out of the hooded girl's book and clapped his hands over his ears that Argo laughed uproariously and gave the issue a rest.

As Kirito handed her a hot bowl of noodles, his guest murmured a word of thanks before adding, "You didn't see anything, did you?"

He immediately denied seeing anything, which was true. Whether she believed him or not, Kirito couldn't tell.

The girl poked at the noodles with a fork before taking a tentative bite. Immediately, the unobscured lower half of her face lit up.

"This is—" she exclaimed.

Kirito couldn't help smiling. "I know. That sauce really brings out the flavor of the noodles. Really makes it worthwhile to spend the time making it even if I don't have the «Cooking» skill." He looked back at Argo, recalling what they had been talking about before disaster had struck, and asked, "So, are you sure you want to join in on the boss fight?"

"We haven't even found where its lair is yet, Ki-bou," Argo replied. "But yes, I think that I'll try to play a more active role than just dealing in information. At least this time around."

"Boss fight?" the girl asked after slurping down another mouthful of noodles.

Kirito looked at her in surprise. "Oh, right. You weren't here when we were talking about it. Come to think of it, this is probably something that you'd be interested in. It seems like some other players are just as sick of sitting around as you are and decided to form up a raid party to take down the district boss. You should look into it; I think with your rapier skills, you'd be a welcome addition to any party."

"Why not just invite her as well?" Argo chimed in. "The more the merrier, right?"

"I'm not sure if she'd—"

"I'll join," the girl replied with such exuberance that both Kirito and Argo were taken aback. "I had a lot of time to think over your words during the bath and…you're right. Trying to escape by throwing my life away won't change anything. And I don't think I'd be able to stand doing nothing when I know that people are trying to clear the game."

So a minute later, Kirito's name and health bar in the corner of his field of view was joined by two others. Argo's he already knew, but now he was able to place a name to the hooded girl. _Asuna_, he thought, _that's a good name_.

"Alright then," he said, standing up. "I'll walk you two back to town. We can meet up in the square tomorrow morning to join in with the rest of the players aiming to clear the district."

"Um, Ki-bou. Not to nag or anything, but you haven't been paying attention to the weather effect outside, have you?" Argo interrupted.

Kirito focused on the sounds coming from outside his safe-house. It was raining heavily and the wind howled as it passed by the boarded windows. In fact, the downpour sounded so bad that he was surprised he hadn't noticed it earlier.

Weather in this world was randomized, but it was also affected by what the season in the outside world was. Since it was now December in the real world, the temperature was usually close to freezing in «Aincrad». Combined with the wind and rain, getting back to town without an expensive teleportation item (which wasn't even purchasable yet) would be a difficult task.

"Well then, Ki-bou," Argo said with a grin that sent shivers down Kirito's spine. "I guess the two of us will be staying over. Unless you want to force two delicate girls to walk back to town by themselves in the pouring rain…"

Despite scoffing at the idea of Argo referring to herself as delicate, Kirito had to agree that there wasn't any other choice. Asuna ended up winning when they drew lots for the only bed in the room, an old mattress that was placed right up by the wall in one corner of the room.

"I'll take the couch then," Argo declared, plopping down on the cushions noisily.

Kirito protested, "Wait, why do _you_ get the couch? Here, I have a sleeping bag on me. _You_ can use it."

"Ohoh?" Argo replied, raising an eyebrow. "I can use your sleeping bag in exchange for sleeping on the floor? That sounds like a fair deal."

Kirito was wondering why she agreed so easily when she added, "Yep, the feeling of going to sleep with the warm and calming scent of Ki-bou wrapped around me will definitely be worth giving up the couch for."

"On second thought, you can have the couch, Argo," Kirito said hastily.

* * *

Sinon sat as far away in the amphitheatre as she could from the center. Even though it was 5 minutes before the appointed time for the district-clearing meeting, most of the people who would be attending were already here. Sinon estimated that there were about 4 dozen other players gathered here today, a poor showing considering the number of people trapped within the game. And out of that number, it seemed like she was the only female present, unless one of the cloaked figures scattered throughout the meeting area was also female.

She had chosen to come without wearing her cloak today. In fact, after her first day alone, she had decided that she didn't really care whether other people saw her or not. All that mattered was becoming strong enough to survive on her own. As long as she was able to do that, she would be fine.

Still, the predominantly male player-base couldn't help but see a small girl when they looked at her. And in their minds, she was something to be coddled and protected. Even though she had chosen the most isolated spot in the amphitheatre, spacing herself far enough from everyone to send a clear message of "do not come near me," Sinon had been approached by no less than five players in the last five minutes. Four had condescendingly asked if she was in the right place, to which she responded by ignoring them until they left without a word. The last had merely been curious as to whether she was actually a girl. Her response was to glare at him so coldly that he retreated with his tail between his legs. Sinon didn't need anyone to protect or worry about her.

While everyone else was chatting away excitedly and waiting for the person who had called the meeting together to take center stage, Sinon scanned the amphitheatre for familiar faces. Despite Heathcliff's parting words of "I suspect we'll meet again quite soon," she had not seen him once since that day. It didn't look like Kirito or Klein were there either, although come to think of it, she had not seen what the two looked like following Kayaba's "gift" in the plaza. She didn't recognize anyone else here either. As a solo player, she avoided crowded leveling spots as much as possible. That didn't allow for a lot of social interaction.

"Well then, thank you all for showing up."

A man wearing a basic set of heavy armor walked up onto the stage. He had wavy hair in a shade of blue that Sinon knew couldn't possibly be what it had been immediately following Kayaba's announcement. After all, Sinon's own hair had reverted to her natural style and color after using the «Looking Glass» item. But between the sword and shield he carried and the blue color scheme he had chosen for his outfit, it was clear the man was going for some sort of "hero from a retro rpg" look.

The man introduced himself as Diabel and then proceeded to speak at length about the need to work together to tackle the obstacle before them. He interlaced his speech with humor in order to help his audience relax and his whole-hearted manner of speaking was clearly bolstering the confidence of many of the players at the meeting. Sinon felt that something was strange about the man, like he was putting on a performance rather than relaying his true thoughts, but she found herself being swept up along with the crowd by Diabel's eloquence.

An eloquent performance that was interrupted halfway by a voice filled with loathing and resentment.

"Before you go any further, I have something I want to say!"

A man with light brown hair styled up into several cone-shaped spikes muscled his way onto the stage. He looked from left to right at the members of the audience, sneering all the while. Sinon recognized him as one of the players who had approached her earlier.

"Something that concerns all of you as well," he continued, seemingly drunk on his own rage. "I know you're there, hidden amongst us hard-working players. That's right! I'm talking about you beta testers!"

He spat the last term out like it was a curse. Quiet murmuring began to fill the stands. Several players exchanged confused glances, wondering what was going on.

The man continued, "Beta testers have no right to be here! Not after you abandoned the rest of us to the mercy of this world after Kayaba's announcement. Because of your selfishness, thousands of players have died already. Instead of helping the rest of the players grow and become strong, you left us to rot! If it weren't for you selfish testers—we might have cleared several districts by now!"

The murmuring grew louder. Sinon frowned. Beta testers abandoned players to the mercy of the world? While she had little doubt that some beta testers might have done so, it was an unfair overgeneralization. Human beings are creatures that instinctively seek to better themselves. In times of stress, it often did not matter who they had to hurt in order to achieve that advantage. That day in the bank—the robber had been trying to achieve unfair gain at the expense of innocents, not caring who would be affected. Likewise, Sinon had been trying to protect what she had without heed for the robber's own situation. Those conflicting desires had clashed and the end result was the would-be-thief lying in a pool of his own blood. _That_ was reality.

Besides, it wasn't just the beta testers who had abandoned their fellow players. The week immediately following Kayaba's announcement had been full of incidents where people took advantage of others in order to gain an edge and increase their own chances of survival. Many of those were players who had been new to the game. And then there were those beta testers who _had_ helped others. Sinon doubted she'd still be alive if it weren't for the time she had spent with Kirito and Klein prior to the announcement in the town square.

But Sinon didn't voice her thoughts. The crowd was getting riled up by the spiky-haired man's words. Sinon knew enough about mob mentality from her tormentors at school to realize that speaking out right now would not end well for her. The message of hope and perseverance that Diabel had been espousing was now overshadowed by the hate-filled rants of this newcomer. Just as Sinon was about to leave before events turned ugly, a calm voice cut through the diatribe.

"So, what you're saying is that you wanted the beta-testers to spoon feed you. That they haven't done enough to help out new players."

From amongst the players seated in the stands, a dark-skinned giant stood up. An unearthly silence filled the arena. In «SLD», it was rare to encounter players of foreign descent because the game was released only in Japan. But it was clear from this man's physique and skin tone that he wasn't native Japanese. More impressive than his build was his willingness to speak out at that moment. Even the player who had been going on at length about beta testers could do little but gape. The giant took advantage of his silence to continue.

"You can't expect everyone to spend the time walking new players through everything. And you cannot deny that there were those who tried. But think about it; there were 1,000 players in the beta. There were 24,000 who gained access on the launch. What were the beta players going to do? Open a school and teach you everything from scratch?"

The spiky-haired man withered under the dark giant's calm stare and his words. It was clear that he wanted to accuse his aggressor of being a beta player, but he didn't have the courage to do so.

The speaker held a small leather-bound volume up into the air for everyone to see. "You cannot accuse all beta testers of abandoning the rest of the player-base. There are those who have been trying to help, but players with your mindset have all but driven them underground in fear for their own safety. This book is available at any basic shop in the marketplace for free. I'm sure some of you have seen it before. So far as I can tell, the information within is accurate and detailed to the degree that I have no doubt that a beta tester wrote it. Anyone can get a copy and it has everything you need to know about the first district. So before you try to instigate a witch-hunt , make sure you get your details straight and try not to do anything that would actually hurt our chances of making it out of this death game alive."

The two faced off for a moment, rage-filled disbelief matching up against calm stoicism. A minute filled with tension passed in silence. Finally, the speaker who had been accusing beta testers of foul play glared venomously at his counterpart and sat back down without a word.

Diabel clapped his hands together, jarring the audience out of their daze. "Well then," he said. "Right now we should focus on what's important. That is, clearing the district. Even if you don't like it, we need the strength of the beta testers. It will take all of us, beta players and newcomers alike, working together to clear this game and return to our world. But I swear upon my honor that it can be done…no, not 'can.' It _will_ be done. And we shall be at the fore, serving to inspire others to take up this cause as well."

Diabel went on in this vein for a while longer, building up the confidence of the raid group before announcing that they should form into the parties they intend to tackle the boss with. Several people approached Sinon almost immediately, but she rejected them all. Although some might have genuinely thought that a musket-user would balance out their group, Sinon couldn't help but think that they saw her as a female player first and a potential party member second. She didn't need their protection nor did she want their help. She was strong enough on her own, she told herself.

But there were those who wouldn't take a hint. First amongst them, the cactus-head from earlier.

"Don't be like that," he pleaded. "We regular players need to stick together, unlike those beta testers who abandoned us right from the start."

Making assumptions about her skill as a player just because she looked the way she did in this world…this man annoyed her to no end. But he was persistent, following her even when she left the amphitheatre in disgust.

In the end, Sinon took drastic measures. Turning around rapidly after going around a corner, she quickly drew her sidearm and positioned it right up against his jaw.

"Quit following me," Sinon demanded, narrowing her eyes. "I _said_ I don't need a party and I most certainly wouldn't want to be in one with _you_. Now leave me alone before I stop being nice."

She pulled the hammer back on her cavalry pistol.

The man's eyes widened in surprise and he sputtered for a few seconds before managing to say, "You can't hurt anyone inside a safety zone. If you didn't even know that, then you must need someone that can teach you about how this game works—"

"Still insisting I'm some novice just because I'm a girl?" Sinon scoffed. Although her tone was as angry as she felt, when presented in her real-life voice, it sounded—pouty. This was another side-effect of Kayaba's gift and yet another reason why she didn't want to be in a party. If she were alone, she wouldn't have to hear the sound of that cutesy voice that didn't belong on a hardened warrior. "Fine then, let me tell you something interesting. While I may not be able to lower your health while inside a town, this game still has an excellent physics engine. Unless you want to find out exactly what the momentum from a bullet hitting your jaw at point-blank range feels like, I'd suggest you leave—now."

He retreated, but not before shooting Sinon an angry look. He shouted something over his shoulder that sounded like, "You'll regret this!"

Sinon watched as he disappeared from her field of view before letting the air out of her lungs. She had been planning on using the remaining time before nightfall to gather the remaining materials she needed to reinforce her musket one more time, but she was feeling drained after that encounter. She decided to take it easy and return to the inn a little earlier than planned.

* * *

"Ah damn, we're going to be late," Kirito noted as the three ran through the streets, trailing a small group of undead behind them. This was a frowned upon practice but, this early in the morning; there was little fear of accidentally running their group of pursuers into other players.

"And whose fault is that?" Argo retorted.

"You could have told me the time it was supposed to start so that I could set my alarm."

The party of three made record time, reaching the outskirts of the town by 8:05. Of course, that meant that they were already five minutes late, courtesy of Kirito's heavy sleeping. By the time they reached the amphitheatre where the meeting was to occur, half of the occupants had already exited, ready to start their day's work. Argo quickly pointed out the leader of the raid to Kirito.

"Like I said, I can't allow you to participate without a party…"

The blue haired man that Argo had indicated to Kirito was deep in an argument with another player.

"What? That wasn't mentioned at all yesterday!"

The other player, a petite girl with a musket slung on her back, gestured wildly as she protested the raid leader's decision.

"That's true," Diabel said calmly. "But after discussing it with the other raid members, it's for the best. It's too dangerous to go into the field alone, especially when scouting for the boss. I don't doubt your skill since you're here and willing to help, but please consider my own situation. I refuse to let anyone die while in my raid group, so there are precautions I must take. If you're alone, there's no guarantee you won't get into a situation where the nearest raid members are too far away to help."

The girl countered his argument, sounding exasperated, "That's why I said I'll be extra cautious. I've survived on my own up until now and I won't need any backup if I'm careful. Besides, all of the raid parties are either full or I've already rejected their invitations yesterday."

"I can't help you there," the raid leader replied. "But I also won't compromise on this point. Join a raid party, I'm sure some of the ones you declined yesterday will still take you. If not, I'm sorry, but you can't come along."

Kirito walked deliberately towards the arguing pair.

"Uh oh," Argo whispered to Asuna. "I know that look on Ki-bou's face."

"Do you?" the cloaked girl whispered back.

"Yep," Argo answered. "That's his 'I-can't-sit-by-idly-while-this-is-going-on' face. Ki-bou likes to pretend that he's a heartless solo player, but he really plays the part of the hero too often to maintain that image."

"So you're saying that as long as she has a party, everything is fine?" Kirito asked, interrupting the argument.

Argo shrugged her shoulders and adopted an expression that said, "What did I tell you?"

"Who are you?" the girl and the raid leader asked back at the same time.

"Just a random busybody," Kirito replied with a grin that caused both to do a double-take. He nodded at Diabel, "But I hear that your raid needs people and that she needs a party. My group could use a good ranged fighter."

The raid leader hesitated briefly before turning to the girl. "Well, there you have it. You can join his group or try and find another on your own, but you're not a part of my raid until you do."

The blue-haired man sent Kirito a raid-group invitation and then walked off to join his own party which was waiting by the exit to the amphitheatre. He spared a final glance for the groups remaining inside before walking out.

"Don't think I'm going to thank you for this," the girl said, pointing a finger at Kirito. "I'm only joining because it's the only way I can be a part of the raid. I'm still going to act alone."

Kirito merely grinned again as if she had told a joke. "Suit yourself," he said, sending her a party invitation. "But if you get into trouble, just send one of us a message."

«Kirito has sent you a party invitation»

The girl paused with her finger over the confirmation button. Her mouth worked frantically as she looked in surprise between the boy in front of her and the invitation menu.

"Kirito!?" she exclaimed. "You're—?"

Her trembling finger brushed against the accept button which the system took as confirmation that she did indeed wish to join the party. Kirito's eyes widened when he saw the name that was added to the top corner of his vision. For once, he seemed to lose his composure.

"Sinon!?"

"I thought you were older?" Sinon said in surprise.

At the same time, Kirito exclaimed, "I thought you were—taller?"

"I take it you two know each other?" Argo interrupted. "But seriously Kirito, what I'm wondering right now is how you managed to create a party with such a screwed up gender ratio."

"You know her too, Argo," Kirito explained, ignoring the last comment. "She's that player you pawned off on me on the first day."

"Ehhh?" Argo said in surprise. "You're that player who kept having to respawn? You look like you've been doing well for yourself since we last met. And alive."

Sinon stared back at Argo. "You're the cheeky information dealer from that time? You haven't changed a bit."

"Um, you three. Not to interrupt your reunion or anything, but we're being left behind," Asuna called out from the side.

-o-

The plan was simple; each party would scout out an area of a specific radius and relay the mapping data to the raid leader who would then consolidate the information and send it back to each group. If anyone encountered the boss, they would keep their distance until everyone was ready to engage.

Even with forty-plus players searching, there was a large area to cover. Nobody expected to find the boss on the first day. Instead, they used this time to learn to fight as squads, determining what each other's weaknesses and strengths were so that they could compensate for one another if need be. By the third day, the overall feeling of camaraderie was high amongst the raiders. It reached the point where some parties had built up a friendly rivalry with the others, competing for the amount area explored each day.

Kirito's group, while only half full, covered ground almost as quickly as the leading group each day. Part of the reason was Sinon, who travelled from rooftop to rooftop whenever possible, pointing out the best routes for her companions below. The rest had to do with the speed with which the three melee fighters dealt with their enemies.

Asuna would attract enemies into a bottleneck through the use of the noise from her pistol. From there, Kirito would fall upon their enemies from behind to devastating effect while any who continued moving forwards were met with Asuna's god-speed «Linear». Argo was in charge of keeping their escape routes clear, but whenever she had the opportunity to lay waste to the enemy, she showed no mercy, literally shredding them apart with her claw-type weapon. They worked as a team so well that it was almost a pity when word came in on the afternoon of the fifth day that the boss had been located.

Their party was amongst the last to arrive, owing to the fact that they had been mapping on the other end of the district. Within five minutes of their arrival, all the groups were gathered around Diabel, who began to explain the boss mechanics to the groups and assign roles.

"Alright, everyone. Listen up," he said after each party had been assigned a letter for ease of issuing orders. "I'm sure many of you have been reading up on the boss fight from the free player guide available at the market stalls." Argo gave Kirito a grin at this news while the leader continued, "This monster is known as «The Gatekeeper » and according to the notes from the beta period, it should have four health bars. It will start off with 4 guards, called «The Risen», which are supposedly stronger, faster, and armored versions of the «Lesser Zombies» we're all used to. Each time a health bar is depleted, the guards will respawn with the exception of the final health bar in which case, 4 new guards will spawn every 30 seconds. At that point, it becomes a race to take «The Gatekeeper »down before we're overwhelmed."

"So, should we all switch to damaging the boss once it reaches the last health bar?" someone near the back called out.

"I'll get to that in a minute," Diabel replied. "But before that, I want to remind you all that this is a boss fight. Do not take any chances with your life. If your health goes into the yellow, let your party members know to cover for you while you heal up. As for the final health bar, we'll go all out on the boss until the number of additional monsters is too high. When that becomes the case, the heavy armor players will begin to gather up all of «The Risen» and then move them along in a circle around the perimeter of the battle area while one or two players hold the attention of the boss. We will take those down before returning to the boss."

The players nodded slowly to show their understanding. When Diabel was satisfied with the number of players who were following the plan, he added, "At some point during the fight, «The Gatekeeper» will equip an oversized butcher's knife. From what the player guide says, it shares the same move-pool as one-handed axes but has extended range. Until that time, it will attack with its fists. Of course, things may have been changed since the beta so we should err on the side of caution. Keep an eye on its attack patterns and fall back if you take too much damage. We _will_ get through this without any deaths. I'm proud to fight alongside all of you on this day!"

Several players burst into cheers and a few even walked up and clapped Diabel on the back. Once the din died down, the raid group entered the tunnel which led to the first district boss in high spirits, ready for whatever awaited them.

"Looks like everything is going according to plan," Kirito said calmly as «The Risen» his group had been in charge of dispatching shattered.

"Don't get overconfident," Argo retorted as they moved to the center of the stadium where the players equipped with heavy armor were holding the boss at bay.

This boss battle was happening in an underground arena that ironically was almost the twin of the amphitheatre where they had formed the raid. There were a few differences. For one, it was larger, almost double in size. There was also a dome overhead, but the ceiling was poorly maintained and light filtered down from above through holes in the roof.

The boss roared and pounded the ground in front of him, causing the earth to shake. Some plaster rained down from the ceiling. The two shield-bearers who bore the brunt of the last attack switched out with the players behind them and began to heal up with potions. The boss fight was proceeding smoothly.

Part of the difficulty in boss-battles was controlling one's fear. Each boss that Kirito had encountered during the beta had been designed to strike terror into the hearts of the players. «The Gatekeeper» was a particularly nasty example of this. It was a humanoid zombie five times the height of a grown man. Thick chains were wrapped along the length of its arms and across its torso. These would clank loudly as it moved about far more quickly than any other monster within the first district. Almost all of its attacks were wide, sweeping blows that covered a lot of area and left a greenish cloud that reeked of decay where it had struck. The latter did not do damage on its own, but it was extremely distracting. Still, everyone was handling themselves well, switching in and out of combat fluidly while Diabel called out orders from his position at the front.

Kirito, Asuna, and Argo attacked the boss's flank while the shield-bearers kept it distracted. Sinon, like all of the other ranged damage dealers, switched targets to the remaining guards, taking those down before bombarding «The Gatekeeper» from a safe distance. Everything was perfect up until the boss went down to its final bar of health.

With a great roar, the boss drew its weapon. As the guide had stated, it was a butcher's cleaver. Although it was rusted and pitted, Kirito knew from experience that it was not a weapon to be trifled with. Following the plan laid out by DIabel, the damage-oriented players charged the boss while most of the shield-users backed off and waited for the boss's guards to spawn. That was when things began to go wrong.

First, it seemed the fight mechanics had changed; Argo's guide was outdated. Instead of spawning at intervals of 30 seconds, there were only 20 seconds between when the groups would appear. Next, every single one of «The Risen» that appeared seemed to have been granted a buff that increased their movement speed. The tank-build players in their heavy armor were barely able to keep ahead of them. Because of these two factors, Diabel called out for the players to focus on the guards just before the boss's final health bar dropped to 40%; much sooner than he had intended.

Even with all but two players switching from the boss to the weaker monsters, it seemed that the raiders couldn't kill them fast enough. More appeared than they could take down within the same time frame. The damage being done to the boss slowed down to a crawl; even though Diabel and his partner were fighting valiantly, they were both shield users and couldn't dish out as much damage as players who were built offensively. In twenty minutes time, the boss's health moved from 40% to 25% of the final health bar. In that same amount of time, the number of «The Risen» in the room had increased from 16 to 30.

Kirito was wondering if it would be best to retreat when the boss snarled loudly and the sound of rattling chains intensified. Although it was dangerous to do so, he chanced a glance over towards where Diabel was holding the boss back while his partner recovered. The boss had dropped his weapon.

No, it didn't quite drop its weapon. The rusted blade was now dangling from its right arm, held up by a chain that connected to the shackle on its wrist. Kirito recognized the weapon-type. It was the same one the «Flesh Horrors» in the 9th district used.

Diabel raised his shield to block the next attack, stepping forwards so that he would be in range to counterattack. Kirito ran forwards, shouting a warning to the blue-haired man just as the chain collided with the raid leader's barrier.

Too late.

With the sickening sound of blade piercing flesh, the chain wrapped around Diabel's body once before the edge of the butcher's cleaver struck home, cleaving through his armor easily and embedding itself in his chest. A glowing red gash appeared where the weapon had struck and Diabel looked down at the wound in surprise. He tried to break free of the chains, but the weapon had immobilized him. With a primal cry, «The Gatekeeper» flailed about, sending Diabel flying in arcs through the air and slamming him against the ground.

Several players, distracted by the gruesome spectacle, took hits from the monsters they had been fighting. That all ended when the blade finally detached itself from the raid leader, sending him skidding across the ground. He ended up only three meters from Kirito's position.

Kirito ran to his side, intending to heal him with a potion. But even as he held the item in his hands, the boy knew it was too late. Diabel's health bar was completely empty.

"Why didn't you take your own advice and just fight cautiously when he changed weapons? Very few people know how to deal with chain weapons, you should have just—" Kirito began.

Diabel smiled sadly, "So you were a beta player too—I had guessed, but I didn't know for sure. But you should know about the LA bonus, right?"

The «Last Attack» bonus which granted additional awards to the player who received the killing blow on a boss-class monster. Kirito knew about it; in fact, he had gotten the final blow on two out of the eight district bosses that had been killed in the beta. But such a thing wasn't worth dying over.

As if he could read Kirito's thoughts, Diabel continued, "I guess it really wasn't worth trying for, but just once, I wanted to play the part of the hero. Do me a final favor, would you? Make sure that no one else dies today. If it comes down to it, find a way to make them retreat. But if you ca—"

Before he could finish what he had wanted to say, Diabel spasmed and was still. Kirito knew what was coming next. Bowing his head slightly out of respect for the now deceased player, he raised his weapon high above his head.

"Wait, what are you—?" a player exclaimed. Kirito recognized him by his hairstyle, the one who was known as Kibaou.

"What needs to be done," Kirito answered, killing all emotion in his voice.

He brought the blade down just as Diabel's corpse twitched and the name «Lesser Zombie: Diabel» appeared above his head. With one final groan, the former raid leader dissolved into the air.

Kirito looked around the room. Panic was beginning to spread amongst the players. Even if it hadn't, they had been fighting for a long time now. It might just be better to retreat now and come back with more players. The number of lesser monsters would only increase until the boss was defeated but it looked like they would be overwhelmed before that happened. Before he could order a retreat, Sinon spoke up from behind him.

"Buy me some time," was all she said.

Looking at how determined she appeared, Kirito decided to trust in her.

"Heavy armor types, form a wall between the main body of enemies and the ranged units," he ordered. "Avoid the boss as much as you can, but if you need to block an attack, make sure you deflect his blade and not the chain."

With those words, Kirito fell in amongst the horde of «The Risen», leading a charge that pushed them back several meters.

"I'm ready," Sinon called out.

"Melee units, back off," Kirito commanded. "Ranged units, unleash hell."

With the roar of musket-fire and the twang of bowstrings, projectiles fell amongst the enemy as Kirito and the rest of the close-ranged damage dealers retreated past the safety of the wall of shields. But one sound above all others stood out. A thunderclap so loud that half the players in the room reeled in shock. A line of destruction led from the rear ranks of the undead all the way back to Sinon.

While those around her looked at her in alarm, she casually manipulated the bolt on the side of her rifle and loaded the next cartridge in. Kirito had never seen a weapon like that before in his life. Nearly as long as the girl holding it was tall, it was far larger than the musket she had been using earlier. From the stock to the muzzle brake, the dark gray rifle looked sleek and deadly. Sinon had fired it from a prone position, lying down on the ground in order to brace herself against the recoil. She ignored the stares of the players around her as she peered through the scope and unleashed another devastating shot that pierced through multiple targets.

The earth-shaking stomps of «The Gatekeeper» jolted Kirito back to the situation at hand. Even though Sinon and the ranged damage dealers seemed to be holding their own against the lesser monsters for the time being, they still had a boss to contend with.

"Melee damage, focus on the boss," Kirito called out. "If you aren't able to avoid the attacks, use hit and run tactics and heal up in between."

Kirito led the way into the fray, followed by a dozen players who were each shouting their own battle cries. Asuna and Argo joined up with him, standing at his side as the three of them worked together to wear down the boss's final health bar. 20%...15%...10%... But as its health diminished, its attacks became increasingly more ferocious. One after another, players were driven back out of the range of the flailing chain/knife combination. Even Kirito's two companions, both heavily focused on speed, were eventually unable to keep up and had to back down.

Kirito stood alone in that cyclone of rusted steel. He was used to this attack pattern. In his mind's eye, he could picture the direction the blade was coming from and where to step to avoid being in its path. All he had to do was adjust for the difference in speed and reach the boss had compared to the monsters of the 9th district. He sidestepped and struck once before leaping backwards to avoid the butcher knife as if came sailing over «The Gatekeeper»'s shoulder.

Most of the raiders silently watched the two players who had shattered all their expectations of what was possible in this world. Sinon was ice; cold, harsh, and unforgiving. Kirito was the wind; fluid, swift, and untouchable.

As lightly armored as Kirito was, even a glancing blow would have dealt considerable damage to him. But in the five minutes it took for him to chip away the last 5% of the boss's final health bar, he did not take any damage at all. When all was said and done, and the boss collapsed to its knees before exploding into a million shards of light, the boy calmly sheathed his sword and turned around to face the awestruck crowd.

Several players burst out into cheers, slapping each other on the back and marveling that they had finally cleared the first district. Others sat down, unable to bear their exhaustion any longer.

"Sinon, that was amazing," Kirito exclaimed as the girl he was addressing shouldered her rifle.

"Oh? And what are we? A sideshow?" Argo asked, elbowing him in the ribs.

Kirito laughed, "You two were great too. I mean, I expected it of you already Argo, but Asuna— the way you handled yourself—I'm starting to think I underestimated your talent when we were talking in the safe-house."

The joyous occasion was broken by a lone voice.

"What the hell was that?"

The source of the complaint was Kibaou, who was glaring at Sinon with a look of contempt.

"If you had access to such an amazing weapon at the start, you should have used it!" he exclaimed. "If you had, maybe Diabel-san wouldn't have…"

His words struck home. Many of the players began murmuring to one another in hushed voices. The celebration died down immediately as they recalled the charismatic individual who had met his end in this room.

"How did you come by that weapon to begin with? You're a beta tester aren't you? That's the only way," Kibaou screamed at Sinon. "I'll bet you were laughing at all of us, struggling while you had _that_ hidden away."

The quiet mutters began to increase in volume and the players looked back and forth between Sinon and Kibaou. Their expressions were no longer joyful; most looked confused, but there were a few overtly hostile faces in the crowd. The animosity towards "selfish" beta testers, suppressed by necessity and Diabel's words of camaraderie, slowly began to surface once more.

"Sinon, you should probably lie low for a while after today," Kirito whispered to her. "Get out of here, unequip your weapon, hide, and wait for this to blow over."

"I can't" she whispered back.

"What do you mean?"

"I can't unequip it. That's why I didn't want to use it to begin with…" she replied.

"You mean—?"

Kirito glanced at the weapon slung across her shoulder, feeling a chill in his bones. _A cursed weapon_. It could never be unequipped or reinforced, taking up a slot permanently. In exchange, its stats grew as the user grew, eliminating the need to purchase or craft a new weapon. To many players during the beta period, it had been a Holy Grail of sorts. But a cursed rifle? In this world where sound attracted enemies, it was quite possibly the worst weapon type to take up the main weapon slot.

While Kirito had been distracted, Kibaou had begun whipping the other players into a frenzy. There were those who remained unconvinced by his words, but opinion was quickly shifting in his favor. If something wasn't done, irreparable damage between new players and beta testers would occur. _No_, Kirito thought, _it wouldn't just end at beta testers_. After all, Sinon hadn't been a beta player. He remembered how inexperienced she had been the day they had met. She had become strong on her own since they had parted, true, but that was through her own efforts. If Kibaou continued on this path… if he was allowed to convince the players that anyone who had "more" than another in this virtual world was in the wrong, then the witch-hunt wouldn't end just with beta testers. Anyone who just happened to luck out with the game's random loot generation would be persecuted as well.

But even if Kirito knew the end result, there wasn't anything he could do, right? He was just one player. Despite his stats, despite his skill and knowledge carried over from the beta, he was only one person. What could he do?

Something tugged at his sleeve. Looking down in surprise, he found that Sinon had grabbed a hold of it. It seemed as if she herself was unaware that she had done so as she continued to glare back at the players who were accusing her of wrongdoing without reason. Sinon was ice. But ice melted in the heat of anger. Ice chipped away under pressure. In that moment, Kirito saw past the mask the girl had created for herself; the mask named Sinon. And he realized that he had to do something.

It was just too much. Really…the world was unfair. Kirito began to chuckle. This world created by Kayaba Akihiko, this false reality…people were more true to themselves in some ways within it. The chuckle became a laugh. This world brought out the worst of humanity…but that didn't mean that it couldn't bring out the best as well. Kirito threw his head back and laughed. To his ears, it sounded strange, tainted with just a hint of madness. Madness? No, he was feeling quite clear-minded. He knew what he had to do.

Kibaou had paused in his diatribe and was now staring at the boy with a fearful expression; as if he were looking at a rabid dog. A silence filled the air as Kirito stopped laughing and looked straight at the crowd of players.

"Beta tester? Selfishness? You think that _she_ fits those criteria?" Kirito chuckled, forcing himself to sound as villainous as possible. "Please—you're all a bunch of idiots! So she has a fancy gun…what of it? She can't equip anything else in that item slot now. No beta tester would have made the mistake of ever using _that_ weapon. She's simply a fool who wished to save the other fools who were following the biggest fool of all."

Sinon shot him an angry glare. He looked back into her eyes, praying with all his heart that she would understand what he was trying to do. She would either hate him after this or she would keep her distance from him. Both results would keep her safe.

Strike while the iron was hot. Kirito continued ranting at the flabbergasted crowd. "Besides, most beta testers couldn't even be considered capable players. What you managed today was something that took twice as many players to do in the beta. And even then, they failed many times before succeeding once. The lowest body count in a single boss battle during the beta test was 352, counting the failures. Here, there was only one; a great fool whose only redeeming quality was his unwavering belief in you lot. And here you are tainting his memory by forgetting the lesson he tried to teach you: to work together."

Disbelief showed on every face in the room. Kirito wanted nothing more than to say that he was lying, that he didn't mean anything he was saying, but he was in too deep now to stop.

"Don't get me wrong, there _were_ beta testers who knew what they were doing. But even amongst them, none were at my level. How was I able to avoid getting hit by the boss while you sat on your laurels and healed up? Because I was one of the only players who made it to the 9th district and fought the monsters there. I knew what was coming and how to avoid it. And thanks to that, I even received the «Last Attack» bonus…"

Kirito shuffled through the item drops he had received from the fight. The items he had gotten for slaying the resurrected Diabel, he placed on the ground where the former beta tester had fallen as a tribute but the item he received from the LA bonus, he equipped immediately. A dark coat materialized around his shoulders, weightless for a split second before gravity took over.

Behind him, some of the players were finally getting over their shock. Amongst them was Kibaou. They jeered at him, all anger at Sinon forgotten just as Kirito had planned. The words "beta" and "cheater" were most common amongst the terms thrown harmlessly at his back and they mixed together to form a term that would become infamous in «Aincrad».

"Beater…" Kirito remarked. "That does have a nice ring to it. After all, I do intend to _beat_ this game. You might intend for that word to be an insult, but this 'Beater' will head on to the second district without you. There I will widen the gap between us and show you the difference experience makes. Celebrate your victory in the reclaimed first district, content in your victory, or follow behind. I don't care either way."

Without sparing a word to the girls who had fought alongside him or a backwards glance for anyone else, Kirito left the underground amphitheatre, his black coat blending into the darkness of the tunnel.

* * *

*notes: Most events here are similar to the events of _Aria in the Starless Night_ although there have been changes as well. Kirito, as I've noted before, is a bit harsher in this world than in SAO. Still, he has that "save the girl" mentality and manages to solve problems through sheer audacity (and create more for himself in doing so.)

Ah, too tired to write more in my notes this time around. Hopefully everything is relatively clear within the chapter, but if you have questions, feel free to ask. Price for answers will be negotiable in «Col». (Writing Argo's character is definitely a bad influence for me.)


	4. Chapter 4: For Want of an Answer

**Chapter 4: For Want of an Answer**

"Gah! That guy pisses me off so much!"

This complaint, delivered with such violent force that it had a high potential for weaponization, filled the small, newly-opened café in the first district of «Aincrad». Sinon tore viciously into the slice of pie in front of her with a fork, perhaps picturing the face of the source of her frustration on her plate in its stead.

Sitting across from her and viewing her with raised eyebrows were Argo and Asuna. Since the shop was empty aside from the three of them, the two had lowered the hoods of their cloaks so that Sinon was able to see their faces clearly for the first time.

Argo was just about what Sinon had expected based on the details that hadn't been obscured by the hood. She had wavy reddish-brown hair, slightly unkempt either by choice or due to wearing the hood for a long period of time. Her brown eyes twinkled, promising of mischief to come, but her most notable feature were the whisker lines that ran across her cheeks. Sinon had asked her about those, but Argo replied with an amused laugh and demanded a high price in «Col» in exchange for the answer to her question. Sinon decided that it wasn't worth the price, even if the other girl had merely been joking.

Asuna was eye-catching in a different way. Whereas Argo gave off a certain tomboy vibe, the other girl had an elegant presence. From the way that she sat to the how she appeared, Sinon couldn't help but think that Asuna was of the upper-class, an ojou. She had long, chestnut hair that came down well past her shoulders and hazel eyes that reflected the light. Whereas Sinon's appearance might be described as "cute," Asuna had already begun to bloom into a beautiful young woman. Sinon tried to reassure herself that this was only because the other girl was probably older than her.

"Are you talking about Kibaou? Or Ki-bou?"

"Kibaou's just a delusional pest. I don't give a damn about him," Sinon replied in irritation. "But that arrogant, self-important, over-reaching, doesn't-mind-his-own-business…"

She trailed off, realizing that she was ranting and didn't mean half of what she had said. Truth be told, she had been starting to feel scared before Kirito had made himself the target of the anti-beta tester movement. Fear she could handle. She was familiar with it and fought against it every day she spent in this world. What she couldn't forgive was how relieved she had felt when Kirito had stepped forward and diverted all of the hatred and scorn towards himself. The look in his eyes when he had turned about briefly, as if saying "I will be your shield," had burned itself into her memory. That one moment had shaken Sinon to the core; because she had _wanted_ to be protected in that instant. _Unforgivable_, she thought. A thought which was directed both at the boy who had penetrated her illusion and at herself.

"Maybe we should have gone after him," Asuna said quietly.

Argo replied, "He wouldn't have wanted that. Why else do you think he left the party immediately following the boss battle? To me, that's a clear message that he doesn't want us getting involved with the situation he dug himself into." She glanced over at Sinon, who had her right hand clenched tightly in a fist and continued, "Especially you, Sinon. Even though Ki-bou diverted their attention back there, you're still going to be a conspicuous target with that rifle slung over your shoulder."

Sinon unconsciously grabbed hold of her rifle's strap. «PGM Hecate II». Based on the item description, it fired a .50 caliber cartridge. While several muskets had equivalent bore widths, none were capable of firing a shot as devastating as Sinon's new partner. It had been a part of the loot she had received for killing «Fenris» in the sewers. But instead of equipping it immediately like many players might have done in her situation, she had chosen to let it sit in her inventory up until today. The first reason for her decision was just as Argo had described; it was very noticeable amongst the primitive firearms that players had access to. The second reason was that it could never be unequipped. The final reason was that the weapon was heavy; at just over 14 kg, it almost caused Sinon to go over her «Maximum Weight Limit».

There were other drawbacks that she had discovered only after she had equipped it. Apparently, this weapon was incompatible with the muzzle clip that she had used with her musket. That meant that she was now forced to equip a side-arm in case any monsters got within melee range. Between the weight of the rifle, the ammo in her pouch, and her armor, Sinon's only choice for the time being was to use a small knife as her auxiliary weapon. She did not relish the idea of needing to get that close to an enemy.

"I know that," Sinon answered, "I'd already planned on returning to my policy of avoiding other players as much as possible now that the first district boss has been slain."

"The lone gunma— er, woman route, huh?" Argo mused. "That's a pity. I thought we worked rather well in a party. What about you, Asuna? Are you going off alone as well?"

The older girl paused to think, resting a finger upon her chin. "I think I work better in a party after all," she answered finally. "But for now, I should work on honing my skills in any way I can."

"Alright," Argo said, "I guess we'll officially break up the party after we finish celebrating here. But let's raise a toast to Ki-bou, who we wouldn't be celebrating this hard-earned victory without!"

Asuna and Sinon's cries of "Kanpai!" were far less enthusiastic than Argo's, but the informant didn't seem to mind as she downed her glass of fruit juice.

"Speaking of Ki-bou," she said as she drained the last remnants in her cup, "Maybe I should reward him a bit for all the trouble he went through…"

"He doesn't deserve it," Sinon muttered. "That blockhead…"

A wry grin formed on Argo's face. "Well then, how about a reward and a punishment rolled up into one? I have just the thing in mind…"

Sinon had no idea what the girl was talking about, but she caught sight of the message as Argo typed it out. Something about an «Extra Skill» located in the second district. Argo refused to elaborate when Sinon asked about it, but the other girl could barely contain her amusement. Sinon made up her mind to take the time out of her training to ask Kirito about it face-to-face.

Half an hour later, the three girls stood outside the café, ignoring the cold as they said their farewells. Despite her misgivings about relying on others, Sinon found herself with two new additions to her friends list. She told herself that these would be the last. Shrugging her shoulder to redistribute the weight of her gun, she headed off, not to find an inn to stay at for the night, but into the second district. She had needed to be protected during this floor's boss fight; she did not intend to ever feel that helpless again.

-o-

The clearing of the first boss seemed to have revived the spirits of everyone trapped in «Aincrad». Within two weeks of clearing the first district, the second district had also been freed from the control of the undead. The number of player deaths from various causes had also decreased dramatically. Many players who had resigned themselves to hiding had begun to take up arms in the name of winning back their freedom. To the dismay of the older players, even some of the youngest children who were plugged into the game, despite sales being restricted for those who were underage, had decided to fight.

Most underage players stayed in the make-shift orphanage that had been opened by kind-hearted players in the days following Kayaba's announcement. But after a month and a half of being cooped up in the starting town and hearing of the deeds of the front-liners who had now cleared two districts, some of the more adventurous ones began to dream of taking part in the fighting. A few had even run away from the orphanage in order to do so. Luckily, most were found and returned, shivering in fear, back to the church building. Missing child descriptions were posted on the bulletin boards that were found in each district center.

Sinon eyed one of the posters as she passed by. She snorted in amusement, remembering an incident in which some busybody had stopped her, thinking that she was a runaway. She had a small profile, but it was still irritating to think that she could be mistaken for a child. Thankfully, she had perfected her glare by this time and a few seconds of exposure to her icy stare was all that was needed to send her would-be "benefactor" scurrying away.

She was still deep in thought when someone bumped into her from behind, letting out a small squeak. Sinon stumbled forwards a step before turning around in annoyance. The perpetrator, a figure clutching a cloak around him or herself, gave another squeak in fear at the expression on Sinon's face. Sinon sighed and relaxed. For a second, she had thought it was just another player out to harass her because of her weapon. Since this wasn't the case, she could afford to be a little friendlier, seeing as it was her fault for suddenly pausing in the middle of the square.

"Are you alright?" Sinon asked, extending a hand to help the person up.

The hood of the person's cloak fell backwards to reveal her face. Judging by appearances, she was at least two years younger than Sinon. Her light-brown hair was done up in two side-tails, adding to her childish looks. The girl's eyes shifted back and forth across the town square nervously at being seen but this early in the day, there weren't many people out and about just yet.

Sinon waited briefly for a response from the child but when one didn't come, she turned around silently and began to walk off. The girl might have been a runaway from the orphanage, but that wasn't really Sinon's problem. She didn't have the authority to send the younger girl back, nor did she want to waste time locating someone who did.

"Wait!"

The girl called out in a voice that betrayed her nervousness.

Sinon turned around. "What do you want?" she asked.

"That gun—You're Hecate-san, aren't you?" the young girl asked. "I've heard about you…"

Sinon continued to walk off without answering. From experience, Sinon knew to avoid anyone who asked after her because of her gun.

"Just listen to me! Please! I need your help," the girl pleaded.

Sinon turned around with a sigh. Brushing the hair out of her eyes, she looked down at the child. The younger girl hadn't even bothered to get up from where she had fallen. "Look, little girl. I don't have time to waste. And I don't help or need help from others. If you've heard about me, then you should know about how I'm a solo player, right? Why don't you return home? I'm sure they're worried about you."

"I-I can't return…" she said softly. "I don't want to. I want to get stronger and join the front-liners!"

Sinon was taken aback by how much determination the girl could put into her brown eyes. And her wish to become stronger…wasn't that similar to Sinon's own? But while her heart wavered, she knew that it would be irresponsible of her to help the girl. Because if she did get strong enough to join the front-liners, all that meant was that there would be a much higher chance that she would die compared to if she remained at home. Sinon refused to be burdened by that knowledge.

"Sorry, I'm not interested in helping you," Sinon replied, trying to sound as uninterested as possible. "Go home."

"B-B-But-But…" the girl stammered, looking up at Sinon with pleading eyes while still resting on her knees.

_Oh for the love of—_Sinon thought. Those bright brown eyes, pooling up with the beginning of tears as the girl's lower lip trembled…those were completely unfair. Ignoring that wouldn't be akin to kicking a puppy so much as it would be trampling over it once and then backing up over it one more time just in case she had missed a spot the first time.

People were beginning to arrive in the square by now and the two of them were starting to receive attention. Sinon let out an exasperated sigh and answered, "Fine, we can talk about this. But somewhere else where there'll be fewer people. And dry your eyes. If you really want to be a front-liner, you shouldn't cry so easily."

The young girl's expression brightened so quickly that Sinon was taken aback. Had she been tricked? Lamenting that she had not yet achieved the emotional isolation that she had wanted, Sinon led the way to a nearby restaurant.

It wasn't the best eatery around, but the food was decent. More importantly, the lights were dim enough inside that Sinon didn't have to worry much about being recognized. Sinon ordered a cake for herself and then made the mistake of offering to pay for whatever the girl that had followed her wanted from the menu.

Three different cakes, two parfaits, and a tart later, the girl, who had introduced herself as Silica, was finally ready to discuss why she had sought Sinon out.

"Um, I was hoping that you'd be willing to teach me how to fight, Hecate-san," she said shyly, acting as if she hadn't just scarfed down enough calories to give any girl a fright in real life.

"Well, I'm not," Sinon answered. "And stop calling me that."

"But—isn't that your name? That's what everyone calls you at the orphanage," Silica asked.

"Look," Sinon replied, rubbing her temples. "My _gun's_ name is Hecate. I don't care to give out my real name. Why are you so determined to fight on the front-lines? You realize that it's not a safe place to be? That you can die out there?"

"Mmhmm," Silica answered without hesitation.

Clearly she couldn't conceptualize death at all. Sinon groaned; _this was going to be a pain…_

"You don't understand at all!" Sinon found herself half-shouting. "To die means you're gone forever. Nothing left over except for your virtual corpse which will join the enemy! The people you've left behind might mourn for you, but you'd never know. All your hopes, your dreams, your future, they'll be severed for good. _That_ is what death means in this world!"

Silica had pressed herself back in her chair reflexively. Once Sinon had finished her tirade though, she leaned forwards again and replied, "That's why I was looking for you. Because you have experience. You know what it's like to be out there."

"Didn't you hear me?" Sinon replied. "If you die, that's the end—of everything! I'm not going to be a part of that."

But Silica kept looking right into her eyes as she answered, "If I stay inside the orphanage waiting for others to clear the game for me, I might as well be dead. You don't know what it's like to be in there, do you? Day after day just sitting…waiting for news about whether the next district has been cleared. Cheering at the stories about the brave people like you who are fighting for our sake while we hide in fear. I can't call that living. I want to be out in the world. I want to help! I want to become strong!"

Silica punctuated each exclamation by pounding her fist on the table. While the blows didn't have that much force behind them, it still rattled the plates on top and prompted an «Immortal Object» tag to appear underneath her clenched hands. But more jarring than that was the look in her eyes. A look that held no fear, only grim determination. They were eyes Sinon was familiar with; the same ones that looked back at her whenever she glanced at a reflective surface. Even if she refused to help the younger girl, Sinon knew that Silica would more than likely go off on her own.

Despite what she had said earlier, despite her desire to just walk away, Sinon was already involved. Like it or not, what she chose to do now would impact Silica's future. She could choose to ignore the girl's pleas and move on with the knowledge that she had most likely signed a death warrant for the younger girl. Or she could choose to teach the girl what she knew, much like Kirito had done for her on the first day. She had been checkmated from the moment the girl had recognized her.

"Fine," Sinon grumbled. "I'll take you along. But only for today! After that, I'm taking you straight back to the orphanage!"

Silica's hands shot out and grasped Sinon's. Her smile was so bright that Sinon had the urge to avert her eyes.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you Heca—" she exclaimed. Looking puzzled, she asked, "Um, what should I call you?"

"Just go with whatever you want…" Sinon muttered. She was feeling drained all of a sudden.

"Ok!" Silica replied in a bubbly voice. "I'm in your care then, Senpai!"

-o-

"Alright then," Sinon said. "Since you're new to this, let's start off easy and head to the sewers in the first district."

"The sewers?" Silica asked, wrinkling her nose, "Do we have to?"

"Unless you want to jump right in and get slaughtered by the monsters in the third district, you'll need to level up in an appropriate area first," Sinon explained. "But you'll want to turn your scent settings down all the way. It's not…pleasant in there."

"Got it!" Silica exclaimed cheerfully.

"By the way, what weapon are you going to be using?" Sinon added, noticing for the first time that Silica was still in the default armor and had no weapon equipped.

"Um, I don't have a weapon," Silica moaned. "Sasha-san, the lady who runs the orphanage, doesn't want us to use them…"

Sinon looked at the girl in exasperation. "You ran away from the orphanage, want to become a front-liner, and you don't even own a weapon?"

"I still have most of the starting money," Silica answered. "Will it take long to buy a weapon?"

"What type of weapon are you looking for?"

"Um, the monsters are kind of scary so I want to be as far away from them as I can," Silica said. "Maybe a spear—no, too short. I know! I want a bow or a gun, just like Senpai!"

Sinon couldn't help but smile at the naivety her junior was showing right now. It reminded her of herself when she had first started playing.

"Well, if that's the case, you can have my old weapon," Sinon said, opening a trade window with Silica. "Just a word of warning. Try not to shoot unless you really need to. Sound draws most enemies in."

Silica's eyes widened as the musket dropped into her hands. Sinon noted that she had forgotten to detach the clip holding her old combat knife to the barrel before completing the trade. _Whatever… I guess it's fitting for me to pass that on to a new player,_ she thought. The weapon was far more powerful gear than a beginner should be possess since Sinon had continued reinforcing it out of habit even after equipping the «Hecate II».

After a little bit of target practice, which Silica actually wasn't bad at, the two entered the sewers through a manhole.

"It smells bad," Silica complained, holding her nose.

Sinon answered without looking bad, "You'll get used to it. Watch your step. It's slippery and if you fall in a bad spot, you'll end up sliding into one of the offshoot tunnels. It'll be next to impossible to find you again if that happens."

Sinon chose not to mention that she had learned that from experience.

As they headed deeper into the sewers without encountering any enemies, Silica became increasingly nervous, jumping whenever the flickering torches casted a long shadow across their path. It looked as if she was starting to regret her decision to run away. _Good,_ Sinon thought. _Maybe I can convince her to leave so that I can actually get some leveling done today._

But Silica kept at it longer than Sinon would have expected out of the small girl. While the younger girl practiced using «Linear», Sinon used the opportunity to get better acquainted with the shorter range on her sidearm; fighting the familiar enemies of the first district allowed her to make minor mistakes in misjudging her reach. Even though it had been almost a month since her primary weapon slot had been locked, she hadn't used her dagger much at all; choosing to rely instead on the considerable stopping power of the «Hecate II» which she now considered her irreplaceable partner.

Within the first hour, the younger girl had mastered using «Sword Skills» to dispatch her enemies. But Sinon had also found out that Silica had a bad habit of closing her eyes every time she attacked.

"Keep your eyes open!" Sinon commanded as Silica breathed a sigh of relief once her foe had shattered away. "You're leaving yourself wide open for a counterattack every single time."

"But it's alright, isn't it?" Silica said, shrinking back as Sinon glared at her. "I mean, they're all dying in two hits…"

"That's only because of the weapon you have," Sinon explained. "And what if you come across an enemy that doesn't go down immediately when you rush him?"

"I'll try," Silica promised.

Of course, her first attempt was a complete disaster.

"Kyaa!" the girl screamed cutely as the «Lesser Zombie» grabbed onto the barrel of the weapon that had pierced its stomach.

Sinon tried to calm her down and tell her that all she had to do was pull her weapon back, but the girl was panicking too much to hear her. Silica closed her eyes again and flailed her left arm about uselessly. If the situation wasn't serious, the effect would have been comical. Sinon sighed and drew her knife out of the sheath that was strapped to her thigh, flipping it through the air before catching it in a reverse-grip. But before she could finish off the monster, Silica had pulled the trigger, discharging a shot with a roar that echoed through the tunnels. The loud sound jarred Silica to her senses and she realized just how much noise she had been making. That caused her to start tearing up as she tried to explain what had happened.

"I don't care about your excuses," Sinon said irritably.

She grabbed onto Silica's wrist and pulled the younger girl behind her as she ran deeper into the sewers, trying to put some distance between them and where the shot had been fired. Silica continued blurting out apologies as she followed behind.

"Just stay close," Sinon responded, not paying attention to Silica's babbling. "I don't want you slipping out of sight while I'm responsible for your well-being."

They ran through pipe after slushy pipe, but everywhere the two turned, it seemed like the path was cut off. That came to a stop when Sinon turned a corner and found herself facing a grate. It would come down to a fight after all.

She unshouldered her rifle, loading a round into the chamber with an audible click. This would be the first time today that she would wield her partner. Her goal was to cut open a path through the blocked tunnel and make her way to the nearest safe area where she and Silica could rest and discuss what the more inexperienced girl needed to change.

Sinon peered down the scope of her weapon, calmly waiting for the green dot that indicated where her bullet might fly to shrink down to a satisfactory degree. _Cold as ice_, she repeated to herself over and over, as she tightened her finger around the trigger. The targeting area shrank until it fit neatly inside the chest of the nearest enemy. That was when the back ranks of the enemy exploded in a burst of light.

Although she managed not to cry out in astonishment, Sinon's targeting circle rapidly expanded as her heartbeat sped up in surprise. There was someone else fighting back there. She couldn't use the Hecate now; not without risking hitting whoever was back there.

Drawing her knife once more, Sinon motioned to Silica. "We're going in," she said.

It didn't take long to clear the tunnel of the low level monsters. Waiting for the two girls on the other side was the one person Sinon had feared would be standing there.

"Yo Sinon," Kirito greeted her with a wide grin.

Sinon was about to chastise him for letting an enemy sneak up behind his back when his right hand shot out and grabbed it by the face. He slammed it into the tunnel wall and dispatched it with a ferocious flurry of blows that caused Silica to squeak in horror. He turned back to face Sinon, still grinning. She noticed that he hadn't even drawn his sword.

"I see that you're having fun with that «Extra Skill» of yours," Sinon noted coolly. "What are you doing here?"

"What? I can't come down to a lower level area to grind my «Martial Arts» skill?" Kirito asked innocently.

Sinon glared at him until he continued speaking.

"I was just in the neighborhood. I, of course, didn't happen to see a certain friend of mine who tells everyone she sees to buzz off going down into the sewers followed by someone else. And I most certainly didn't use my «Tracking» skill to follow them at a distance out of curiosity and learn that this self-proclaimed cold-hearted sniper was now helping a newbie learn the ropes," Kirito replied with a wink.

Sinon found herself almost regretting not pulling the trigger while she had the excuse of not knowing someone was behind the enemy lines. She pointed a finger right up to Kirito's nose and retorted, "If—If you so much as breathe a word to anyone else—I'll let everyone know about your appearance when you were training for that «Extra Skill» you're so proud of!"

Kirito's face paled as he unconsciously touched the spots on his cheek where the NPC who had granted him the skill had scrawled thick whisker marks in ink that wouldn't come off until he completed the quest.

"You wouldn't dare—," he began.

"Try me," Sinon replied, adopting a neutral expression.

While this was going on in front of her, Silica had been watching on patiently. As her curiosity reached a peak however, she found herself unable to keep quiet.

"Senpai, who is this person?"

"Oh, sorry," Sinon apologized. "This is Kirito. Arrogant swordsman who can unfortunately back up his words, self-proclaimed «Beater», and all around nuisance. Kirito, this is Silica-chan."

Kirito's grin widened a bit more at the introduction. "You forgot to add «Aincrad»'s most hated player to that list. Nice to meet you, Silica-chan." But his face turned serious a moment later. "We need to talk, Sinon," he said urgently, "There's a safe zone fairly close to here, let's head over there now."

The safe zone was a massive circular chamber, split into four islets by the streams of water that ran across the room. Unlike the pipe they had just exited from, the room was brightly lit and surprisingly clean.

"Are we still in the sewers?" Sinon asked. "This seems awfully spacious to me."

"Actually, most of the sewers consist of wide walkways and drainage canals," Kirito explained. "You just happened to be in the part of it that's a messy network of plumbing."

Sinon noted that for future reference. "So? What did you want to talk about, Kirito?"

"Well, first things first," he began. "The third district boss meeting is taking place tomorrow. This one's especially important since it unlocks the «Guild Charterhouse». Speaking of which, have you thought about joining a guild?"

"You know I'm a solo, Kirito. I'd be just as likely to join a guild as you are," Sinon replied.

"Still—," he argued, "you should think about it. That also brings me to what I _really_ wanted to talk to you about. You need to be careful, Sinon. You've made quite a few enemies. I'm probably not one to talk, but at least most people don't know what I look like. To them, I'm just another player who thinks black is a cool color. But you can't really hide that gun of yours. A guild will offer some protection from jealous players, at least."

"I don't need you to worry about me," she replied. "I can handle myself."

She fixed him with a stare that challenged him to disagree.

"I have no doubt about that," Kirito replied. "But I've overheard a lot of talk recently about players committing crimes against other players. Nothing that can be substantiated but still…just take care of yourself, alright?"

With that, he turned around and left, disappearing as suddenly as he had appeared, the black of his longcoat blending into the darkness of the tunnels around him.

* * *

Kirito blinked as his eyes quickly adjusted to the light levels outside of the sewer. It was good to see Sinon outside of the boss meetings, but he couldn't help but think the girl was pushing herself too hard. That was another reason why he had asked her if she planned on joining a guild.

Of course, the main reason was…

"Done with your reunion already, Ki-bou?"

"I passed along your warning just like you wanted me to, Argo," he answered. "Sinon and I are both solo players, it's better if we don't meet up on a regular basis. But I still don't understand why you didn't just tell her yourself."

Argo shrugged her shoulders as if the answer were obvious. "Because I can't be seen giving away information away for free. You of all people should know how important maintaining a reputation is. And in my case, losing that reputation would put my finances in jeopardy."

Kirito laced his fingers as he sat down on the bench. "I just hope you're wrong about the increase in player-crimes."

"Me too. But the numbers should decrease again once guilds start forming and the players organize against them," Argo replied as she sat down next to him.

Kirito thought back on the beta. If things mirrored what had occurred then, the criminals, widely known «Orange Players» for the change in their player indicators, might form guilds that specialized in exploiting other players. It wasn't as likely to happen now since «SLD» was no longer just a game, but the possibility remained. He hoped that Argo was right and that the guilds that formed would be able to restore some semblance of order to the player-base. Things were a lot better than they were before the first district had been cleared, but with nothing to police the players, grudges and unsettled disputes between disagreeing party members were becoming more frequent.

Also, he couldn't help but worry for Sinon despite her insistence that she was a solo player. Mostly because she had an impulsive streak to her that reminded him of himself at times. It would be great if she were willing to join a guild since then, she'd have comrades to watch her back; both from monsters and from other players.

"I'm going to look into this a little, just in case," Kirito decided. "The incidents all took place in the third district, right?"

"Trying to be a hero again?" Argo asked, looking displeased.

Kirito answered, sounding confused, "You know that's not the case, Argo."

"I don't know about that," she replied. "You have a hard time sitting on the sidelines when someone's in trouble even though you try to act like you don't care. Don't get me wrong, that's a good thing—usually. But I can't shake the feeling that one day you're going to try to help or save someone and fail. And I don't want to think about what that would do to you."

"This concerns more than just me," Kirito said. "If there really are «Orange Players» out there, someone needs to track them down."

Argo looked at him carefully before nodding once, "I know that look. I'm not going to be able to persuade you against going, am I? Just be careful. If the players behind this are strong enough to operate in the third district, it'll be difficult, even for you, to confront them. I don't want you getting hurt."

"What? Are you worried about me?" Kirito asked, grinning widely.

Argo laughed and gave him a light shove. "As if! I just don't want to lose a source of income. A girl's got to eat, you know."

-o-

The gate leading to the third district opened, metal rumbling against stone. Kirito stepped inside, drawing his sword and moving quickly into the zone. Unlike the previous areas where the buildings were spaced close enough that travelling from rooftop to rooftop was viable, the third district had more open space. This meant that it was less likely that a player could get surrounded by undead under normal circumstances, but also that there were fewer hiding spots.

This district had been breathtakingly beautiful once it had been freed during the beta. Kirito recalled spending hours just lounging on the soft grass under the shade of the trees in the park-like zone. The buildings themselves were more decorative than in the previous zones. The first two districts mostly consisted of residential buildings and a few shops. The third district might have been a center of government once; at least with regards to the city of «Aincrad». If Kirito remembered correctly, Kayaba had even saw fit to include a library in this district, complete with a massive collection of books from the real world.

Right now however, the ground was parched and cracked, refusing to soak up water even when the weather generator decided to make it precipitate. Those days were the worst; sloshing about in ankle-deep slush as you tried to find your way around. The trees that Kirito enjoyed resting under were twisted monstrosities at the moment, with grasping branches that reminded him too much of the monsters that dwelled in the district.

"So I'm here," Kirito mumbled to himself, "but I have no idea where to start looking. Some plan this was…"

Kirito fell back upon the standard procedure for such situations: wander around randomly until something happened. Several times, he saw other players fighting at a distance, but nothing looked suspicious to him about their behavior so he avoided them. He was still widely recognized on the frontlines as a «Beater » and he wanted to avoid any trouble other than that of the particular sort he was seeking.

It wasn't until much later, just after nightfall and near the border of where his mapping data ended, that Kirito noticed something strange.

"There are—no monsters?" he wondered.

Even if players had been killing everything in sight, depleting an entire area before anything respawned was difficult. And Kirito hadn't seen any players around at all lately. It was as if this place were a safe zone, but no system message confirming that idea had appeared at all.

Kirito opened up his skills list and selected his «Tracking» skill. A small window with a blank tag appeared into which Kirito typed the words «Errant Ghoul». His skill level was now high enough to input the name of any monster he had defeated once before and seek out others of its kind. And if he wanted to find out why all the undead seemed to be missing from this zone, it made sense to start by looking for the «Creepers».

As he expected, a large number of glowing yellow prints appeared on the ground. While they crisscrossed over one another repeatedly, it seemed as if they were all heading in the same direction. Kirito was certain of it now; _someone_ was behind this phenomenon.

The path zigzagged across several streets to no discernible pattern, but the number of footprints Kirito was following increased steadily. It wasn't long until the first of the enemies came into sight.

It was a larger horde than any Kirito had ever encountered before. In order to get a better vantage point, he climbed the nearest tree, nearly falling out when a brittle branch snapped as he tried to pull himself up. When he reached the top however, he found that even his initial estimate of the number of enemies fell short by a large margin.

The «Errant Ghouls», along with a few other monster-types from nearby, were arranged in a ring about 7 or 8 monsters thick, milling about in an effort to reach the middle. At the center of the circle was a group of five players, backs turned to one another as if they were preparing for a last stand. Kirito jumped out of the tree, barely noticing his health drop slightly from the fall damage as he sped towards them.

"I'm going to try to cut a path in from the outside!" he shouted. "See if you can push through in the direction of my voice!"

Too late, the enemies at the outer edge of the ring turned to face Kirito. His sword flashed out, striking the nearest ghoul at the base of the neck, its weakest point. He managed to take down a second before the enemies pressing in from the sides forced him back a step.

From the other side, Kirito heard a cry go up and the sound of battle. The monsters' ranks bulged outwards as the players within pressed their way onwards. Kirito redoubled his efforts, lashing out with AoE skills as soon as their cooldown period ended in an effort to avoid being surrounded.

Within two minutes, the five players who had been trapped made it to Kirito's position and together, the six of them punched a hole back to the outside. Once they had put a comfortable distance between themselves and the horde, all six players collapsed in relief.

"I thought we were all goners!"

One of the players he had just rescued, a chainmail wearing spear-wielder, clapped Kirito on the back as he celebrated their lucky break.

"Did everyone make it out?" Kirito asked.

"Everyone that was left when you arrived. We lost Shiba-kun before we even knew what was going on," another of the party members replied slowly. "I've never seen monsters act like that before. It was almost as if they were waiting to spring a trap on us."

"Hmm, I don't think that what happened back there was part of their behavioral algorithm," Kirito replied, getting to his feet and brushing his hair back.

There was a loud gasp.

"You!"

Kirito turned in surprise. In the moonlight that had just filtered down from behind cloud cover, he recognized the player who had just called out as one of the heavy-armor wearers from the first district boss battle. He had also been one of the more vocal elements who had taken Kibaou's side.

"You dirty «Beater»…were you the one behind this?"

At the utterance of the term «Beater», the party members began to mutter dangerously amongst themselves.

"If I was, why would I put the effort into saving your hides?" Kirito answered calmly.

"Who knows what goes through your mind?" the player retorted. "You're just in this for yourself. What do you want? Maybe it's reputation? Or gratitude? Or maybe you just want to 'show us the difference experience makes' and rub that in our faces?"

Kirito flinched backwards as his own words were hurled in his face. Although he wanted to argue back, he recognized that the other player had a legitimate reason for distrusting him. The only thing he could do now was pray that the rest of that party wouldn't jump to the conclusion that _he_ was the one behind the unusual monster behavior.

"Believe what you want," Kirito answered, in direct opposition to what he really wanted to say.

What the man's reaction to Kirito's words was, he never found out. A green player indicator briefly appeared just behind the cover provided by a half-collapsed wall before vanishing again. It had been there for such a short period of time that Kirito almost thought it was a figment of his imagination. Usually, player indicators appeared only if you concentrated at looking for it, but the system must have registered his prolonged casual staring in that direction as just that.

_An eavesdropper?_

Kirito ran past the startled players he had saved, ignoring their outcry of surprise. His target noticed his approach and fled, ducking behind cover to break Kirito's line of sight whenever he or she could. The figure's tattered gray cloak blended in well with the environment, making Kirito's pursuit even more difficult. Try as he might, Kirito found himself unable to gain much ground. He counted himself lucky then, when he rounded a corner and found his quarry stopped in front of a wall.

"Well, «Beater»-kun. It seems that you've managed to corner me. I suppose congratulations are in order."

The man spoke without turning around. His voice was deep, saturated with a strength that drew listeners in whether they were willing or not.

"Show your face!" Kirito demanded, drawing his weapon with the rasping of metal rubbing against leather.

"My…aren't we demanding? Are you going to attack me? Even knowing that you will only doom yourself to an orange player indicator with nothing to show for it? If so, I'd suggest you do so now."

Although those were the words the man said, Kirito noticed a dull shine as moonlight reflected off the weapon held in the man's hand. It looked like a dagger-class weapon, although the size was slightly larger than the typical example of that type of armament. He was ready to fight back if need be and seemed to have confidence in his abilities.

Kirito refused to be goaded. "What's your objective? MPK'ing? Doing something on such a scale will only end in your downfall."

"MPK?" the man replied, sounding amused. "I would not stoop to calling this effort a mere 'MPK.' This was—a message. A recruitment advertisement, if you will…"

"What!?"

Kirito gripped his sword so tightly that his fingers were starting to go numb. Although he hardly noticed the cold weather anymore, he now felt a deep chill that permeated him right to his bones.

"You think I'll let you walk away unharmed after saying that?" Kirito declared.

"Of course," the man answered. "Because I know your type. Too prideful to rely on others, yet unable to turn a blind eye to those in need. But let me ask you this: Did those you saved today appreciate your efforts?"

"T-they…"

The cloaked figure ignored him and continued to speak. "That reminds me of a tale I once heard in passing. Of a boy, not yet old enough to bear the responsibilities of a man, who riled up all the hatred and scorn this world has to offer and became the first known «Beater». At first I thought the tale nonsense, for who in his right mind would be foolish enough to risk the ire of every player? Especially a child? But as I thought on it, a strange idea came to mind. What if, perhaps, the boy committed said act, not for his own sake, but to ensure that other «Beta Players» gained acceptance? A far-fetched theory, to be sure, but intriguing, is it not?"

"Hell if I know," Kirito answered between gritted teeth.

"Don't you now, «Beater»-kun? A pity, because from the description, the boy who sacrificed himself so valiantly then wore a black longcoat— much like the one you have on now. Rumor has it that he wielded a single one-handed sword with no shield… just as you do."

"What are you saying?"

"What I'm saying is that the reason why I did not interfere in your misguided rescue is because I find myself more interested in the reason for your actions than concerned with how much those actions may impede my own goals. Tell me, what can you possibly hope to gain by shielding these poor deluded fools who don't even realize the significance of your actions?"

Kirito couldn't come up with an answer. From the start, there had been nothing to gain. He had charged forwards, doing only what he had felt was right. While logic told him that he shouldn't get involved in something, the greater part of what made up "Kirito" said otherwise. Did doing something that benefitted the majority at the expense of the self require a reason?

When Kirito didn't provide an answer to his query, the man turned about. In the darkness, all Kirito could see was the angular outline of his face. Something clattered by his feet.

"What?"

The «Smoke-screen», hurled from the rooftop above him, exploded, obscuring Kirito's vision completely.

"I look forwards to you answer the next time we meet…«Beater»-kun… The stage is not yet set."

The man's parting words, the last of which were delivered in fluent English, stuck in Kirito's mind as his light footfalls faded into the night. Kirito made his way out of the ashy cloud, coughing to clear his mouth of the foul taste the «Smoke-screen» had generated.

_A reason?_ Kirito asked himself as he stood alone in the cold winter night. _Was there really a need for such a thing?_

* * *

*notes: A lot of set-up for future chapters this time around rather than focusing on the action. The token loli makes an appearance early…will she become a sidekick for Sinon-senpai? I've already decided on what I'm going to do regarding her future development so have fun guessing what will happen. Every action, however small, can impact future developments.

Speaking of which, Kirito's speech at the end of the last chapter really came back to haunt him this time around. It sucks being «Aincrad»'s most hated player no matter how cheerful you try to act around your friends. Here, I tried to show the darker side of MMOs; suspecting other players of ulterior motives, blaming others for failures, and a general disregard for the welfare of others if it does not benefit oneself in any way.

I'll admit that the PoH segment was partially inspired by F/SN, with Kirito being at a loss as to how to answer the "why be a hero" question. PoH himself is an interesting character because there's so little out there about him aside from a general appearance, weapon type, and the fact that he's supposedly very charismatic. He's a blank-slate arch villain who can be much more involved in the lives of the players than Kayaba, in my opinion. That's all for now, I hope you enjoyed this (shorter than previous) chapter.


	5. Chapter 5: The Recruit

**Chapter 5: The Recruit**

"I thought I might find you in here."

A stern voice shattered Sinon's concentration. She scowled, setting down the novel she had been immersed in before looking up. Asuna stood behind her, a disapproving frown set on her face. As always, a rapier hung at her belt on her left and a pistol on her right. Sinon noted that both had been replaced since she had last seen the other girl.

"What brings you here, Asuna?" Sinon asked calmly.

"Anyone would worry if a friend of theirs stopped responding to their messages! Sinonon…are you alright? If it's something I can help with—"

Well, at least she wasn't angry enough with Sinon to stop using the silly nickname she had come up with out of the blue one day. But Sinon's problem wasn't something she was willing to involve Asuna in. In fact, it might not even be a problem at all, considering all Sinon had to work with was a hunch that something was off.

Besides, Asuna had enough on her plate as it was. Not long after the tenth district had been cleared, almost three months ago now, she had been invited to join the guild «Knights of Blood» by the raid leader. From what Sinon had heard, she was quickly making her way up the ranks of the guild, first becoming a party leader and then a council member. Between helping run the guild and leveling up her skills, Sinon couldn't help but wonder how it was the other girl had the time to worry about people outside of her guild.

Heathcliff had extended Sinon an invitation to join «KoB» as well, but she had declined, declaring that she refused to be tied down. The man had accepted her excuse without batting an eye. Sinon wasn't sure if she trusted the man enough to want to work under him even if she were amenable to joining a guild in the first place. He had shown up at the boss planning meeting, two and a half months after they had parted ways in the sewers of the first district, and by the time the boss had fallen had been hailed as the undisputed hero of the day. His strength was the real deal, seeing as he had done the work of an entire squad of shield-bearers by himself, but Sinon couldn't help feel that there was something odd with how she had not encountered him in any of the training grounds she frequented in all the time that had passed since their first meeting.

"No, I'm perfectly fine," Sinon lied. "I even have the time to relax and get some reading done. You really should take a break sometime, Asuna. It'd be bad for guild morale if one of their council collapsed from overwork."

One aspect of being a solo player is that one quickly learns how to lie convincingly. Lie about whether one has a party already. Lie about one's level, equipment, and skills. Sinon had become so accustomed to telling falsehoods to strangers that she felt nothing at deceiving one of her few friends in this world.

_Have I now moved on to lying to myself? Or have I really become like this?_

Asuna stared at Sinon for a moment before letting out a tired sigh.

"I wish I could," she admitted. "But Leader's such a believer in laissez-faire management that nothing would get done in the guild if it were just him running things. So I need to pick up the slack and maintain discipline. And that starts with leading by example."

"Admirable," Sinon replied honestly.

Far more admirable than herself, who still avoided people as often as possible. In fact, the only sustained human contact Sinon had on a regular basis, not counting the boss planning meetings and raids, were the one or two times per week she dropped by the orphanage to take Silica out hunting. Sasha, who ran the place, had stated that she was even considering allowing Silica to go out into the field on her own, now that the young girl was becoming capable enough on her own. Once that happened, Sinon would be alone again. That was what she wanted. Right?

"You're sure everything is alright?" Asuna asked once more, looking at her in a concerned, sisterly sort of way. Sinon would have been tempted to answer honestly if the other girl didn't look so tired.

"Yeah, nothing out of the ordinary," Sinon replied. And because the best defense was a good offense, she added, "But I was serious. You look terrible, Asuna. You need to get some rest and trust in the other officers in your guild to pick up the slack a few times."

"I'm getting guild advice from you?" Asuna asked, giggling at the irony. "I'll take a break once I finish submitting the report on the clearing progress. We'll be hosting the boss planning meeting for the 23rd district in two days. I probably need to tell Kirito-kun that too…he practically lives on the frontlines these days; he'll never get the word if someone isn't looking after him."

"Alright, get finished quickly then," Sinon said, closing her eyes and waving her hand dramatically in a shooing motion. "It's almost time for the normal, sane, group-loving players to return for the night so I'm going to be heading out shortly to claim a leveling area. But before that, I want to finish this book…"

Sinon picked up the novel again and flipped it back open, pretending to be engrossed within its pages once more. She had lost all interest in the story the moment she had been interrupted and besides, the reason she was in the library in the first place wasn't for pleasure reading. Her eyes followed Asuna as she exited the building. Once she had gone, Sinon counted slowly to fifty and got up herself, leaving the book on the table for the librarian NPC to reshelf. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the person she had been keeping an eye on get up as well. He had been following her since this morning, although always from a distance.

It was time for a confrontation.

Sinon took a deep breath and sprinted out of the library. The librarian NPC said something sternly in response to her quick movements, but Sinon ignored her programmed response. After all, what could an NPC do to her when she didn't actually break any rules?

Exiting into the streets just as the sun was going down beneath the roofline; Sinon immediately turned a sharp right and pressed herself up against the outside wall of the library. Moments later, her pursuer, a young man wearing dark-gray colored heavy plate-mail armor, ran out into the street, muttering a curse under his breath. He glanced left and right hurriedly.

"Looking for someone?" Sinon asked coolly, leaning on the wall and looking as nonchalant as she could manage.

The young man, face half obscured by his helmet, took a startled step backwards as Sinon stepped towards him.

"Now then, would you care to explain why it is I seem to have run into you all day long?" she questioned.

"Ah—i-it must just have been a coincidence," he chuckled nervously. "I mean, there aren't too many places to go around here, so we must have just ended up at similar places…"

Sinon stared him down before retorting. "Right," she noted sarcastically, "in a district known for its parks and scenic views, you just coincidentally walked into the same dimly-lit, almost shady café I went to and decided to forgo the nice weather in favor of spending an entire afternoon staring at someone from behind a pile of books in a musty library."

"Um…when you put it that way…"

"The only thing you're worse at than lying is tailing someone. Really—wearing heavy armor when trying to sneak doesn't work at all," Sinon said, letting some irritation slip into her voice. He withered under her glare. "Now, I notice you have the emblem of «The Army» emblazoned on your armor. Are you going to tell me what you were doing or do I have to find out from your superiors? I happen to know Thinker-san and I'm sure he'd be willing to have a nice chat with the two of us to settle this."

Officially known as the «Aincrad Liberation Force», «The Army» was the largest guild in the game, with roughly 5,000 players enrolled within its ranks. Only a small fraction of the guild was strong enough to take part in district clearing battles, but they had always sent at least a token force each time, starting with the fifth district. Their leader, Thinker, had participated on the frontlines until responsibility and pressure from the officers under him kept him away from high-risk activities such as boss battles. He still made a point of appearing at each boss planning meeting, but his presence was more ceremonial than anything else at this point.

"No! You don't need to do that," the young man pleaded. "I'll tell you…"

Sinon nodded slowly and kept her attention focused on him.

"My name is Highwind. I'm a member of the recruiting division. My commanding officer told us to see if any of the frontliners without a guild might be willing to sign up since we're trying to play a bigger role on the front these days by taking over all district clearing battles and having experienced guild members will help us reach that level faster."

He looked at Sinon expectantly, but she only replied, "I don't see what that has to do with me, seeing as how I've already made it clear to Thinker-san that I'm not interested. Besides, wasn't «The Army» originally created to clear districts in an orderly manner while protecting the populace at large? This new direction sounds too reckless for one of Thinker-san's ideas."

"The guild is too large for any single person to run. This plan came from the leadership tier just under him, not from Thinker-dono himself," Highwind explained. "A lot of the time, the leaders of the various divisions aren't in sync. But my leader told a few of us to get in contact with known players who aren't locked into a guild already, which is why I'm here."

"That doesn't explain why you've been following me all day," Sinon replied, slowly losing her patience. "Get to the point."

The young man hesitated, looking left and right before answering in a hushed tone. "I did say that the divisions aren't necessarily in sync, right? Well, there's a lot of internal politics that go on. The captain of the «Striker» division, er—the melee damage branch of the frontline-level players, wasn't happy when he heard that the recruiting division had its eye on bringing in solo players."

"Ohoh?"

"In fact, that's the reason why he pulled me aside and had me investigate you…not that I was any good at it, by all appearances," Highwind explained, his eyes darting to the gun slung over Sinon's shoulder. "He said he heard some unflattering remarks about many of the players on the frontlines. How they were all «Beaters» or selfish opportunists who don't play well with others."

Sinon gave him a patronizing look.

"Ah! I'm not saying _you're_ one of those specifically," he added defensively, backing up and raising his hands up submissively. "But anyways, I figured there were worse ways that I could spend the day than following a cute girl around. I could have been on patrol…"

"And the word 'stalking' means nothing to you?" Sinon asked, narrowing her eyes at having been called "cute." All she needed was for the wrong person to hear that and her reputation as a tough-as-nails clearer would lose credibility.

"Er—right," Highwind admitted. "Well, I won't bother you again, so I really hope you won't hold it against me. And if this hasn't completely put you off to joining, please at least consider joining the «ALF»."

He turned to go, looking as he if wanted nothing more to burst away at a full sprint but that dignity and his guild's reputation required that he move at a more respectable pace.

"Wait," Sinon interrupted. "This surveillance thing…has your guild been doing it to me this entire week?"

"This whole week?" Highwind asked, sounding puzzled. "As far as I know, this only started today."

Sinon felt a chill as she watched the young man disappear into the crowd of players returning from the field and sewers. If «The Army» hadn't been behind the feeling that she was being watched, then who was?

-o-

Sinon stared through her scope at the enemy located almost 500 meters away at the intersection. She calmed herself and allowed the green circle that indicated where her bullet could potentially hit to shrink down into a dot that centered right between the monster's eyes. Although a body shot would also kill this particular foe instantly, Sinon believed that aiming for anything less than the most challenging target would dull her skills.

*BLAM!*

With a roar and a brief spurt of flames erupting from the front of the Hecate, a .50 cal bullet flew through the air, taking off the enemy's head a split second later.

Sinon pulled back the bolt of her weapon, ejecting the now empty cartridge with the clink of brass upon stone. The empty casing shattered into fragments upon hitting the rooftop, much as the unfortunate monster in Sinon's sights had done a moment earlier. She reloaded her weapon before flinging it across her shoulder as she ran swiftly to the next vantage point.

She covered ground a lot quicker these days. As a sniper, her early stat allocation had mostly been in «Strength». Back when she had first equipped the «Hecate II», Sinon hadn't had enough points in the stat to wear anything other than unarmored clothes; not if she still wanted to move around at normal speed while carrying a light dagger and a small amount of ammunition. Once she finally had enough «Strength» to carry her weapon, wear the latest light armor, wield a mid-level knife, and keep enough ammo in her pouch to avoid having to access her item menu all the time, Sinon had started putting points into her «Agility» stat.

At first, the difference had been negligible. But now that her level was in the high 20's, she noticed that her aiming circle had shrunk by about 5% at the start of a sniping cycle. Getting the green-colored aid to shrink down even further was up to her own innate ability to remain calm, but every bit counted. As an added bonus, her movement speed had increased, making it easier to move from one hiding spot to the next.

As she moved on to the next building and took position on the roof, Sinon once again felt a strange pressure coming from behind her. A vague uneasiness within her mind which told her that someone was watching her. She scanned the rooftops for signs of other players, but could not spot anything suspicious through the gloom of the night. For the hundredth time that week, she regretting not putting the fourth skill point she had been allotted upon reaching level 20 into the «Searching» skill.

The first skill she had taken was, of course, «Basic Firearms». Immediately after finding her partner in the depths of the first district sewers, Sinon had put her spare skill point into «Extended Weight Limit» as a means of meeting the weapon's hefty weight requirement. Upon reaching level 10, she invested in «Hiding», a skill which had occasionally saved her life. And at level 20, she had chosen a skill solely on a whim. It had proven to be useful, if a bit of a pain to level up. But on days like today, she wished she had picked something else first.

There had to be something she could do about it. The uneasiness was starting to affect her performance. After months of being the hunter, it was disconcerting to feel like she was at the other end of the predator/prey relationship. The best course of action would probably be to just head back into town and try to either lose whatever was trailing her there or seek out the source. But Sinon really didn't want to give up this training area right now. It wasn't just a matter of gaining experience or leveling up. Her pride as a solo player was on the line.

She checked her inventory, panning through the list of items she owned. As she neared the bottom of the list, she found herself grinning. She had a few options left to her yet.

She didn't know exactly where that ominous pressure was coming from, but when she scanned her surroundings carefully, Sinon thought that it felt…sharpest…from the south-east.

"In that case—" she muttered to herself.

Sinon broke into a sprint, heading due north. She set off a large number of «Smoke-screens» behind her as she went; part of an old stockpile she had bought a long time ago and forgotten about when they hadn't come in handy. In no time at all, there was a wall of billowing smoke behind her. Even if she didn't know exactly where her source of uneasiness was stemming from, she should be out of sight right now.

Sinon smiled grimly. No doubt monsters would be attracted by the noise she had just made. Anyone foolish enough to keep up a pursuit would be more likely to find themselves running into the undead than Sinon while they tried to navigate through that dark cloud. She was just counting herself fortunate when…

"For a moment there, I almost lost track of you. Good work."

A mocking male voice called out from above.

Sinon pushed off the ground with all of her might, barely avoiding the metallic flash that rained down from the rooftops above. She rolled to her feet, shouldering the «Hecate II» while scanning the rooftops. She caught sight of a cloaked figure but before she could do anything, he leapt down, catching onto a windowsill before dropping down the rest of the way in order to avoid taking fall damage. It was difficult to make out any details about him in the darkness since he wore a tattered gray cloak with the hood up, but he was at least a head taller than Sinon. An orange player indicator glowed above his head.

Sinon squared off warily with the new arrival, keeping her gun pointed at his chest. "Who are you?" she demanded. «Orange Players» were never good news.

"What? Are you going to shoot? Can you even shoot another player?" the man laughed. Even behind his hooded cloak, Sinon could make out a sinister grin. He raised his gauntleted hands into the air in a gesture of mock surrender. "You know, it's not that simple to bring harm to another player. I'm not talking about the act of hurting someone; that's actually rather easy. What I'm wondering is whether you have the mindset required to pull that trigger."

All of a sudden, Sinon was back in the bank on the fateful day of the robbery. _The mindset required…_ The shocked faces of all the onlookers. Her trembling hands gripped the gun she held unsteadily. The expression of disbelief on the would-be thief as he bled out on the floor…

Sinon unconsciously lowered her gun. The man's grin widened when he noticed the small motion and he opened his right fist. A dull grey sphere fell to the ground, as if in slow motion.

_That's a—! _

Sinon brought her gun back up quickly, but just a fraction of a second too slow. The street around the man was enveloped in a smokescreen before she could aim properly. Purely out of instinct, Sinon jumped to the side just as a pair of darts flew through the space she had been occupying.

This was bad. Not only did she have little desire to shoot at another player, but the reverse didn't seem true. So she did what any sane player would have done; she ran.

Another dart flew by her face as Sinon ducked inside an abandoned building for cover. She might be able to escape from a window on the other side, but that man seemed to be able to find her far too easily.

What did he want anyways? If he had been intending to attack Sinon from the start, it made little sense for him to speak before throwing his darts at her. Also, throwing weapons generally did low damage, certainly not enough to kill a frontliner. Most likely, he was trying to immobilize her with a poison, but to what end?

Sinon gritted her teeth. Two could play at that game. While she didn't have the throwing skill, the fourth skill she had taken was «Alchemy». At first, she had chosen it because it was the crafting skill which made components for gunpowder and incendiary rounds, both useful for her style of play. It wasn't until much later that she discovered that she could only make some of the required components; another crafting skill was needed to finish the product. Still, she had kept the skill; mostly because easy access to healing and status cure potions were extremely useful to have as a solo player. Now however, Sinon would use the darker side of the alchemic arts.

Sinon frowned for a second. For the briefest of moments, she had felt strange; a rush of adrenaline and excitement that she shouldn't be feeling was coursing through her body. It wasn't something that she should be feeling when she was fighting another human being. Not when this could mean life or death. She suppressed the feeling, reminding herself that she needed to be cold and emotionless to be in top form.

She searched through her inventory and found several potions with varying negative effects; these were either the results of experimental mixtures or what had resulted when she was trying to level the skill up when she didn't have the ingredients to make healing items.

The sound of footsteps echoed upwards from the entryway. Slow and deliberate, it was clear that the cloaked man didn't consider her a real threat. Blood pounded in her head at the thought of being underestimated. Still, his slow pace allowed Sinon to prepare everything she needed to with time to spare.

First, an ambush by the stairs. If it worked, great. If not, he would pursue her more quickly and hopefully, less cautiously, lest she get away.

Sinon hurled a fluid-filled bottle at the cloaked man. However, due to her lack of the «Throwing» skill and the orange player's cautiousness, she missed by a large margin, the contents of the bottle splashing harmlessly over the floor far to his right. She ducked under his return fire and slipped back into the room.

Sinon focused on the sound of his footsteps as he approached the door. She lay in waiting to the side, aiming her rifle carefully as she counted down.

_3…2…1…Now!_

She pulled the trigger, feeling the heavy recoil as the Hecate responded to her command. For the first time, the man's calmness was shattered. Sinon's rifle had that particular effect on players experiencing the noise up close for the first time. He managed to recover himself quickly, patting himself down as if he were checking for a bullet wound. Not that the Hecate would have left him capable of checking for a wound had Sinon been aiming for him.

"Foolish move," he gloated. "If you were trying to take me down, you just missed your only chance. I won't give you the time to reload before I—"

With a crash, the wooden plank Sinon had leaned on the door earlier toppled over. Although it was an «Immortal Object» and couldn't be destroyed normally, it was still affected by the physics engine. The vials that Sinon had carefully balanced on top fell to the ground, shattering on impact and splashing their contents all over the cloaked man.

"You—!" he exclaimed, managing to take two staggering steps before the paralysis effect took over and he collapsed.

"Now then, let's get some answers out of you, shall we?" Sinon stated calmly, fingering the edge of her knife. Despite all that had happened, despite how the man in front of her had tried to harm her, she wasn't sure she could carry out her unspoken threat. Luckily, the man in front of her didn't know that.

"Like I'd tell you anything!" the man replied angrily, spitting to show his defiance.

"You know…that gunshot I fired earlier should have attracted a lot of attention from the monsters in the area. And that paralysis agent you got on you? Well, good luck recovering from _that_ in less than ten minutes," Sinon explained as she waved a bottle in his face. "But I happen to have a curative potion right here…"

"Tempting, but it's worth more than that to hold my tongue," he replied sarcastically.

"I don't think you understand the situation here. You're only alive because I want answers," Sinon said, stabbing the knife into the floor right by his face. "Now, tell me why you've been following me around."

"Hehehehe…Hahahahaha!"

Sinon was taken aback by the man's sudden burst of laughter. She pulled her knife back and stared at the man warily.

"It looks like you were right after all, Xaxa…" the man called out. "She does have the makings of one of us."

Sinon rolled to the side just in time to avoid a stab. The attack came deliberately slow enough that she suspected the wielder of the weapon was only trying to put some distance between her and his ally.

The newcomer wore a cloak just as his companion did, but unlike the other, his face was fully visible. Or rather, the lower half of it was visible. The top half of his face was concealed by a mask shaped like the top half of a skull. Glowing red orbs shined through the darkness of the eye sockets; Sinon guessed that the color was an effect of the mask and not the wearer's natural eye-color.

"Hehehe," the second cloaked figure, Xaxa, chuckled. "That's a nice look for you, Johnny… The 'poison master' hoisted by his own petard…"

"Shut up and use a status cure already," his partner replied. It was in a bantering tone, as if the two were good friends.

While this was going on, Sinon was searching desperately for another way out of the room. There weren't any. She hadn't anticipated a second orange player showing up. The situation had gone from bad to worse.

One orange player she could handle but two, especially when they were this close to her already, was a different story. Her close combat skills weren't particularly good since she hadn't taken a melee weapon skill yet. To make things even grimmer, she had initially thought the weapon in Xaxa's hand was a long sword, but on a closer inspection, she realized that it was an estoc. It would be difficult to parry a continuous thrusting attack while minding the darts that "Johnny" seemed fond of hurling.

"Well now Hecate," Johnny said, stretching his limbs, "It looks like the tables have turned on you."

Sinon silently readied her knife, resolving to take down at least one of them. She didn't have enough time to reload her gun; the distance was far too short between her and the orange players.

The red-eyed one, Xaxa, sighed at her show of defiance and charged. Sinon parried his first thrust and counterattacked by slashing at his arm, hoping to disable his use of his arm. She couldn't use a «Sword Skill» just now since the momentary delay after it executed would make her an easy target for a counter from either Xaxa or Johnny. Sinon had planned on keeping Xaxa between herself and Johnny so that he wouldn't be able to hit her with a throwing weapon without risking friendly fire, but the two orange players worked well as a team.

Xaxa jumped to the side as Johnny threw a barrage of three darts at her. She avoided two of them and barely managed to deflect the third with her knife by placing it in the path of the «Projectile Path Prediction Line», diverting the needle away from her midriff. But before she could fully recover, Xaxa charged in again, this time using a «Sword Skill» that Sinon didn't recognize.

She avoided the first two hits of the skill by a hair, but the third attack, a wide swing with the blunt edge of the blade, connected and sent her sailing back a meter. Sinon grunted reflexively as she took the hit in the side even though the attack did less than 10% of her total health. But the momentary distraction was enough for Johnny to finally hit her with a ranged attack.

"Guh!"

Sinon collapsed to a knee as the paralysis effect began to take hold. Although it might not have been what was actually happening, she felt as if the two now had gloating expressions.

"_Damn it_," she thought, "_not like this!"_

Something clinked by her side as she collapsed on the ground. Puzzled, she glanced towards the sound with some effort. _Of course! The potion I was trying to use to extort information earlier!_ She tried to move her hand towards the bottle. Progress was painfully slow, but it didn't seem as if Xaxa and Johnny noticed anything other than her struggling.

"Still fighting? You don't know when to give up, do you, Hecate?" Xaxa asked, squatting down and peering at her face.

Sinon glared at him, refusing to give him the satisfaction of an answer. All the while, she inched her hand towards the vial.

"Those are good eyes," Xaxa crooned. "Anger and hatred can't begin to describe what I see in them. What else do they hold? A touch of pain? Sentiment? But I see the truth. Those are the eyes of a killer."

His words shocked Sinon. _He couldn't possibly know?_ She was so startled that she momentarily forgot the task at hand.

"Oh, don't look so shocked," Xaxa laughed. "You only have the beginnings of a good PK. If you truly lived up to the potential in those eyes…well, I doubt Johnny and I would be standing here right now."

_So he didn't know…_ Sinon almost sighed in relief before remembering that she was still paralyzed. She continued the painfully slow task of reaching for the potion.

Xaxa cupped her face in one hand in an almost intimate gesture. Although the game had a «Harassment Code» that prevented players from touching one another in overly familiar ways unless both players permitted the action, it seemed as if this action was minor enough that it did not count. If she had the ability to move, Sinon would have slapped him as hard as she could have. Instead, all she could do was redouble her glare and try to hurry in her attempt to grab a hold of the status cure potion.

"You asked why we were after you?" Xaxa asked. "Well, I'll be happy to tell you now that we have your undivided attention." Johnny chuckled a little at the joke as the masked player continued speaking. "I'll be honest. We want you. You'd be an asset to our group with your weapon and personally, I don't think the clearers appreciate you as much as we would."

_Only a few centimeters more…I need to buy some time._

"Like hell I'd join you," Sinon sneered.

"I don't think you understand the situation here," Johnny stated mockingly from behind his companion. "You see, we're from the nicer faction in our little gathering. There were those who would have just killed you and looted your corpse to save themselves the trouble of approaching you. We convinced them that it might be better to try to convert you first."

He drew three darts from within the folds of his cloak and walked over to Sinon.

"But I'm not a patient man," he added. "I'm going to impose a bit of a time-limit for you to give me your answer."

He stabbed the darts into Sinon, one through the back of each hand and the last into the small of her back. Angry red spots appeared where the weapons were stuck into her flesh; the system's rendition of a wound. Her health bar slowly began to decrease, about 15 points per second.

"Judging by how quickly your health is going down, I'd say you have close to 5 minutes to make your decision, maybe a little less," he noted. "If you value your life, I'd suggest taking our offer. If not—well, it's not that big of a loss for us. We'd still get your gun."

Sinon clenched her eyes tight. "_After all this time…it's still not enough?"_ she thought, "a_fter all these years, all that suffering…I'm still that scared little girl looking down the barrel of a pistol?"_

Her health bar slowly crept downwards, turning yellow as it went below the 50% mark. _I'm not going to die here!_ Her survival instincts kicked into high gear as her health bar dropped into the red and the alarm began to ring in her ears. 25% left. Her hands finally reached the bottle. Johnny finally noticed what was going on and stomped on her wrist, preventing Sinon from moving any further.

_Just a little bit more and…_

But she couldn't bring the bottle to her mouth. It was all that she could do from letting go of it again. Just when she was beginning to think that she might not make it, a voice called out from the doorway.

"Isn't this a surprise? Two grown men picking on a young girl. And here I thought you orange players couldn't possibly be more pathetic."

A man with disheveled brown hair stepped inside. He wore a dark-green military-style outfit trimmed in silver and carried himself in a confident manner. Sinon recognized him at once. What was the leader of «The Army» doing in a place like this?

"Well, it looks like we've got ourselves a big catch here," Johnny laughed as he turned to face Thinker. "I wonder how much we can ransom you for, 'Leader of «The Army»-san'?"

Thinker smiled confidently, "Do you really think that you're even remotely capable of capturing me? Or that I'd be stupid enough to come alone?"

As if on cue, a silver-haired woman entered the room.

"Thinker, I wish you wouldn't run off like that. The rest of your guard are searching for you desperately even now… They're on their way."

"Ahaha…sorry for making you worry Yulier-san," Thinker replied. "That being said—You two, are you sure you want to stick around right now? The rest of my men should be here soon and I can promise you a long vacation in the dungeons of the «Black Iron Castle» if they catch you."

Xaxa dropped down into a fighting stance and replied, "We can take on two of you and escape easily enough. There's no way a soft person who made a guild to help the weak is a match for us even if you match our numbers right now."

Thinker sighed, regarding the orange player with one eye closed before he drew his weapon, a lance. "Have it your way. But it's not two against two here. You might want to take a look behind you."

The orange player was about to mock Thinker's attempt to distract him when the clack of a bolt being closed sent a chill down his spine. Behind him, fully recovered from the paralytic effect of the poison from earlier, Sinon stood with her rifle pointed straight at his chest. Her expression was calm and indifferent, but the air around her seemed to blaze with suppressed indignation at the humiliation she had just gone through. Her eyes, cold and unforgiving, pierced through the orange player. They no longer held any shred of hesitation.

"Fine," Xaxa stated, lowering his weapon. "You win this round. But next time, I doubt you'll be as lucky."

The two orange players strolled out of the room without looking back. If they were annoyed at having been thwarted, neither one showed any sign of it.

"You're not going to try to capture them?" Sinon asked, looking almost as if she might attempt that task by herself.

Thinker sighed, "I would like nothing better than to do so, but I doubt it would do any good right now. You never know what people like them would do if driven into a corner and I didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt in the night."

"But didn't you say you had men who would be here soon?"

Thinker looked surprised before bursting out into a hearty laugh. It was the first genuine sounding laughter Sinon had heard in a long time. "That was a lie. But a very believable one. I left without letting anyone know. If Yulier-san hadn't caught me sneaking out, I really would have been alone."

"I still don't understand why you'd take such a risk in heading to the frontlines," Yulier scolded him. "You know it's dangerous enough even by day. And you have responsibilities to the guild. You can't just go on and—"

Thinker cut her off with a raised hand. "As I told you while we were tracking Sinon-kun down, I wanted to apologize for the actions my men took without my knowledge. And like you said, I have responsibilities towards the guild; that includes giving a formal apology in person for offending actions whether I was aware of them or not. Sending someone to trail her exceeded the limit of what I will tolerate."

Sinon noted to her amusement that he had used the "-kun" honorific. The first time the two had talked, he had used "-chan," to which Sinon had given him a scathing reply as to just what she thought of _that_.

"So with that said," Thinker continued. "I'd like to apologize for the actions of my subordinates and hope that it hasn't put you off to the idea of joining the «ALF». We really could use someone with as much strength and experience as you, both on the battlefield and in training our recruits."

"I refuse," Sinon replied, walking past him. "Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for your intervention today, but life in a guild isn't something that I'd care to experience. I've had far too many bad experiences with other players."

"Hold on."

Yulier interrupted her before she could leave. Sinon turned back to face the woman, slightly annoyed. Yulier had her hands on her hips and a disapproving look on her face. For a moment, Sinon was reminded of Asuna.

"What is it?"

Yulier hesitated for a moment before answering, "If Thinker hadn't shown up, you'd probably be dead. I think you owe us a little more than mere thanks."

"Yulier-san…" Thinker warned.

"What are you trying to get at?" Sinon replied.

"I'm saying that you owe it to Thinker to join us, even for a while, and help us with training our ranged-weapon users," Yulier said. "Plus, those orange players are less likely to bother you if you were part of a guild."

Sinon stubbornly shook her head, "I refuse to be tied down by other players. I like my independence and nothing is going to convince me to dedicate my time to a guild, not even being the target of orange players. If they want to go after me, I just need to get strong enough that they won't consider it worthwhile."

"You obstinate girl. Can't you see that you're worrying other people? That there are those who would appreciate your help? Your knowledge and ability might be enough to save dozens in the coming boss fights and you're still refusing?" Yulier was practically yelling now. "How much can you do if you're lying dead on the frontlines because you ignored the threat that «Orange Players» pose?"

Thinker placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Thinker! Say something already. You believe the same don't you?" She looked at him expectantly, hoping he would reaffirm her words.

Instead of addressing his subordinate, Thinker spoke to Sinon, "If that's what you really want, I won't force you, Sinon-kun. But I really think it'd be safer for you if you joined at least for the time being."

"If I was worried about safety, I would still be hiding in the first district," Sinon scoffed.

"You know that's not what I meant," he replied. Then, contemplatively, he added, "What if I told you that I'll allow you to join the guild and still have a large measure of independence? That I won't force you to participate in guild activities if you don't want to?"

Sinon had to admit that the offer was tempting. But she still had many reservations about joining a guild. Also, «The Army» was less of a guild than an entity. The sheer number of players within the guild meant that she would definitely encounter people she would never be able to get along with.

"If I join, I want to set a few conditions of my own," Sinon replied after a long period of deliberation.

"We can discuss those later. This isn't the best spot to talk about such details. I'll meet you at the «Black Iron Castle» in a while," Thinker said. "There's still one thing I need to take care of before I go."

Sinon was about to ask him what it was, but judging from the looks that were passing between Thinker and his subordinate, she could guess what it might be. Without another word, the girl walked out of the room, leaving the two to their business.

* * *

"Thanks for the backup back there. Things might have gotten messy if you hadn't gone along with my story about having people close by," Thinker said gratefully.

Yulier crossed her arms across her chest and replied, "You're welcome. Now, will you tell me what that was all about?"

Yulier was normally a patient woman, but tonight's events were starting to wear her thin. Not only did Thinker try to sneak off by himself, but he had deliberately placed himself in danger and was now seriously contemplating overturning the discipline that she had come to expect from every member of the guild for the sake of a single player.

"What?" he questioned. "That was the course of action that would be best for us as a guild."

"That's only in your opinion," Yulier retorted. "I've followed you so far without question because I believe in you as a leader, but this is really pushing it. You can't expect to stay in control of the guild if you're going to play favorites. There's enough dissention already without you—"

"Yulier…" Thinker interrupted, dropping the honorific that he used in public. "My goal in creating this guild was to get as many players out of this world as possible while taking care of those who are unwilling or unable to fight. Somewhere along the way, the guild's purpose may have begun to shift, but my own objective will never change. They might question my actions as the leader of the guild, but I think that they'll come to understand why I'm making this decision. I really believe that the guild will come to respect and rely on that girl. She only needs a chance. And besides…she needs a guild that will look after her as much as we need her."

Yulier sighed, rubbing at her temples. "You're always like this…optimistic to a fault and too trusting of the good in others. I doubt that girl needs a guild at all. After all, she's survived all this time on her own. You can probably count the number of players who still solo on the frontlines on the fingers of one hand."

"That's where you're wrong," Thinker replied. "She doesn't need a guild to protect her. Not really, except as a deterrent against orange players. She needs to be in a guild for an entirely different reason."

Thinker began walking down the creaking stairs of the building that had almost turned into a battlefield. He sat down on the last step, patting the wooden board to indicate that Yulier should sit as well.

"What did you mean by that?" she asked, joining him.

"Tell me Yulier, how old do you think Sinon-kun is?"

All of a sudden, Thinker looked older, more burdened by his perceived responsibilities than Yulier had ever seen him before. He was not one to shirk duty, one of the reasons why Yulier found him endearing, but that came at the price of his willingness to get involved in matters that he could not solve on his own.

She pondered his question briefly before answering, "No older than 15."

"Exactly. At her age, she should be laughing with friends and hanging out without any worries," Thinker said. "She should not be fighting for her life in this death game…"

"Plenty of other children are trapped here as well," Yulier replied.

She had a soft spot for children, often visiting the orphanage when she had time off from her guild duties. Most of the time, she brought pastries and sweets to distribute, since the children, with one exception, were unable to earn the «Col» required to purchase food and snacks.

"True, but how many of them are risking their lives on the frontlines?" Thinker answered. "And more importantly, how many of them would be willing to kill another player if driven into a corner like she was today? She's lost something important, Yulier."

"And you're willing to let someone who would potentially kill another player if they threatened her wellbeing into the guild?" Yulier asked incredulously. Unconsciously, she shifted slightly further away from Thinker.

"That's not it at all," Thinker replied, fiddling with his fingers as he thought about how to word what he wanted to say. "She needs to learn that there's more to this world than just power, fear, and death. The scariest thing about this world, in my opinion, aren't the monsters or the fact that if you die here, you die in real life. To a certain extent, even the willingness of some players to rob and cheat and harm others doesn't frighten me too much. The scariest thing is how this world continues to slowly change us without us noticing."

He took a deep breath before continuing, "Do you know how militaries around the world train their soldiers? They give them human-like targets during practice. They even gave the process a fancy name: Desensitization. After a while, it becomes easier to think of the enemy not as another human being, but only as a 'thing to be killed.' In fact, you may not know this, but there was a lot of speculation when VR technology first came out that it would be used for military training."

Thinker laughed bitterly at his own words. To Yulier, it sounded like the laugh of someone stretched to the breaking point. Stretched far beyond what she would wish upon her enemies, let alone the guild-master she deeply respected.

"Kayaba was exceptionally cruel in making most enemies in this world look like people," he added. "We're all slowly losing the ability to differentiate between a «monster shaped like a person» and other players. I can't begin to imagine how far down that path Sinon-kun and the other clearers have travelled. She needs to relearn how to laugh, to cry… all those little things that make us human, or she might become something worse than what we're up against right now."

"And you're going to teach her that?"

"I can't do it alone, obviously," Thinker replied. "I'll need the help of the guild. And—I'd like to have your help in this. You're the one I can trust most; I don't need to worry about whether my words will be turned against me if I'm telling them to you."

Yulier smiled at the last words. "You don't even need to ask. I've stuck by you for this long because I believe in you. Even if I think you're being overly naïve, I'll stand with you and watch out for you so that you can do what you need to without worries."

Instead of replying with words, Thinker suddenly threw his arms around her in an embrace. Yulier was so stunned by this that she didn't return his hug until much later. The two sat on the steps of the decrepit building, oblivious to the haunted ambience, lost in their own world for what seemed an eternity. When they separated at long last, Thinker whispered the words "thank you" into her ear softly.

Yulier stood up and brushed off her pants, praying silently that Thinker wouldn't notice how red her face was at the moment. She turned around and offered a hand to help Thinker up, which he took gratefully.

"If you still plan on recruiting that girl, you shouldn't keep her waiting," Yulier said with a smile.

The pair left the building together. If any observers out for a late night session on the frontlines happened to follow those two back to town, they would have noticed that the two never once let go of the other's hand until they reached the outskirts of the town.

* * *

Sinon walked out the large double doors that led to Thinker's office within the «Black Iron Castle» with a hint of a smile on her face. Negotiations had gone unexpectedly well. She looked at the information tab where the words «Aincrad Liberation Force» were now displayed alongside her name. As per the agreement between Thinker and herself, the membership was mostly in name only.

She had a few responsibilities within the guild, mainly attending the training for their ranged-weapon users twice a week, but aside from that, she was still an independent player. She was not required to patrol the cleared districts like most members of the guild nor did she have to help in the recruitment effort or find a party when going out hunting. Best of all, she was outside of the chain of command. While Thinker had stated that he expected her to at least acknowledge the command tiers within the guild, she did not report to anyone. Sinon didn't even have to follow a direct command from Thinker himself, although she knew that she most likely would if that was ever the case; it wouldn't do to erode the authority of someone who had shown her this level of trust and leniency.

Yulier followed her out, looking displeased with how permissive her superior had been. She motioned silently for Sinon to follow.

"You're still angry with me for what happened back in the 23rd district?" Sinon asked. "If you have a problem with me, it'd be best for you to get it out now. For you, I mean. I really don't care about what others think of me anymore."

Yulier paused, the final clack of her boots against the stone floor echoing through the empty hallway. For a guild that boasted over 5,000 members, this section of the headquarters was surprisingly desolate.

"You honestly think that everything revolves around you, don't you?" she asked in an annoyed manner, her silver hair swaying gently as she shook her head. "It's not _you_ I'm worried about. It's how Thinker is sticking his neck out for your sake. I hope having you around is worth the cost, because I can guarantee you that many of the upper command will not like our leader's decision."

"That's something that I'll prove to you with actions," Sinon replied. "And I'll make you eat your own words soon enough."

That response got a small laugh out of Yulier. "There's no shortage of confidence in you is there?" she asked. "If only half the players in this guild had the same backbone as you..."

They continued down the hallway. About a minute later, the younger girl could stand the silence no further.

"So? Where are we heading?"

"To your quarters here in the castle," Yulier answered. "You can choose to use them if you want or book a room in an inn, but it'd be more convenient for us if you were close at hand should we need to contact you."

"My own quarters…" Sinon mused before jokingly adding, "Do I get a nice matching uniform too?"

Yulier snorted in amusement, "I doubt you'd wear it even if we gave you one. If you really want one, I suppose I can arrange to have one made. Or you could just dye your armor in the guild colors."

Sinon shook her head. "No thanks," she replied. "I'd rather not look like one of the masses."

"I figured as much."

As the two turned down hallway after hallway, Sinon found herself admiring how massive this building was. It was impressive enough from the outside, but it seemed even larger from within, if that was possible. The passageways were all crafted from the same dark colored stone from which the castle derived its name. There wasn't much in terms of decoration, a tapestry here, a grim-faced statue there, but mostly just empty space. Either the residents didn't care much for ornamentation or the blandness was a reflection of a spartan lifestyle expected from members of «The Army».

Someone was waiting outside of the room already when Sinon and Yulier arrived at the door. It was someone that the girl had not expected to see again and she wasn't happy at all to find him standing there.

"What have we here? A new recruit?"

Judging from the sneer on his face, it seemed that Kibaou had recognized Sinon just as quickly as she had him. Life in «The Army» seemed to have suited him well. He wore a flashier outfit, although still in the guild colors, than the members of the guild that Sinon had seen in the streets. It wasn't the uniform itself that was eye-catching; the clothing was of a similar cut as Thinker's. What was drew Sinon's attention was how the man had seen fit to decorate his uniform with a plethora of awards and medals. She suspected that most of them were self-awarded.

"Why bother asking? Your spies have probably told you everything you wanted to hear already," Yulier replied curtly. It seemed that there was little affection between the two.

"No need to be nasty, Yulier" Kibaou said, feigning hurt. "They're not my spies, merely loyal members of the guild who see fit to inform me of the happenings of the guild."

Yulier eyed him with contempt as she retorted, "And yet they didn't seem to inform you that Thinker had left the headquarters alone in the middle of the night. Or if they did, you didn't see fit to send anyone after him to protect him."

"You dare accuse me of such a treasonous act?" Kibaou replied angrily. "I didn't send anyone after Thinker-sama because, as you said, he left alone and told no one that he was going." With a small nod in Sinon's direction, he continued, "Had I known he would encounter riffraff such as this, I would have gone after him myself."

He did not seem to notice that his last sentence was inconsistent with his denying knowledge of Thinker's absence.

"That 'riffraff' you're talking about happens to be the newest member of our guild, here on Thinker's personal invitation," Yulier answered coldly. "I would like to remind you that you need to set a good example for the other members of the guild as their second-in-command."

"As second-in-command, I believe that you should be more polite when addressing me," Kibaou replied, arrogance seeping into his voice.

The two faced off for several seconds. It seemed as if they had forgotten Sinon's presence. Not one to get involved with drama, Sinon walked past the two and opened the door to her room, revealing a small chamber furnished with the bare minimum of necessities. There was a bed at the far corner, a dresser in the middle and a stool in the corner to her right. A window on the far side looked down on the streets below, but it was too dark outside to see much. From outside the room, she could hear Yulier and Kibaou continuing their heated discussion.

"If he continues to associate with scum like that «Beater» you two just recruited into our ranks, I doubt Thinker will remain as the leader of this guild for much longer!"

Challenging Thinker's authority touched a nerve with Yulier, as she answered more angrily than Sinon had heard coming from her before.

"Sinon is not a «Beater». The way you go on accusing anyone even slightly more capable than yourself of being a «Beater», I'm surprised you haven't driven more members to quit the «ALF» than you have already! Get off your ego-trip and quit with the hate-mongering; I don't tolerate that behavior with other members of the guild and you're no better than anyone else here no matter how highly you think of yourself."

The noise from outside her open door was getting to be too loud for her tastes, so Sinon returned to the door and shut it. As the room was now set up for her personal use, she was able to lock the entryway. But she caught one last scathing remark that passed between Kibaou and Yulier before the sound cut off entirely.

"That girl is a damn «Beater» and I refuse to acknowledge her right to be a part of this guild! She all but admitted it in the first district boss battle. And if you want to remain in good standing with the majority of the people here, you'd best learn a measure of respect when your superiors are speaking, Yuli—"

Sighing deeply, Sinon plopped down on the small bed in the corner of the room. The mattress was stiffer than the one in the room she rented in the 20th district, but at this point, she was tired enough that she hardly noticed the difference.

_What have I gotten myself into? Being in a guild is bad enough, but this one seems to be falling apart even before I arrived._

With that thought in mind, Sinon drifted off into sleep.

* * *

*notes- Guild drama. It's something I'm sure many of you who have played an MMO before have experienced before. Of course, the experience isn't always bad; there are always nice guildies who are willing to help out and share a laugh with you. But "and then they all went for a drink in the virtual tavern and all their troubles vanished like the alcohol in their mugs" doesn't really make for an interesting story. Plus, the «ALF» canonically was split into various factions due to its size, even though readers don't ever see what went on aside from a small bit in one side story.

There's quite a bit of a time-skip between this chapter and the last. But for those of you who are confused, it's close to 6 months into the death game at this point (five and a half, going by the brief mention at the beginning of the chapter.)

Xaxa and Johnny Black play a major role this time around as antagonists. I figured it would be appropriate that they be the ones Sinon encounters considering the Death Gun incident in the GGO portion of the LNs. Yes, I realize that the Death Gun in the novels aren't exactly the same as the orange players in SAO (left this vague so I won't spoil too much for those of you who haven't read those books yet [and what are you waiting for if you haven't!]) They give off a bit of a creepy stalker vibe, don't they? I hope they do, since that's what I was aiming for.

Kirito doesn't show up at all this chapter aside from a very brief mention. Yeah, before you all complain, this is _Sinon's_ arc. Kirito will get his own later on and I can say now that Sinon will probably show up there about as much as Kirito does in this arc. I'll leave you with a final thought that should get you thinking a bit. The players are currently clearing the 23rd district, close to the first milestone; and events here generally have parallels in canonical events.

EDIT: Minor corrections to make a few conversations flow a little better.


	6. Chapter 6: Welcome to The Army

Chapter 6: Welcome to «The Army»

Sinon woke up to the annoying buzz of the default alarm in her head. There were other options that she could have chosen, ranging from bird calls to the serene sound of the wind rustling the leaves in a forest, but she found that she was most alert early in the day if she was treated to a harsh awakening. She did regret not having delayed when the alarm would go off this morning, considering the late hour she had gone to sleep, but it was too late to do anything about it now.

In her semi-conscious state, she wondered why her bed felt less cushy than she remembered before the dark-gray ceiling came into focus and she recalled exactly where she was.

"Oh right, I'm in a guild now…"

With that thought in mind, she kicked up off the bed and took in her surroundings. Last night, she had been so tired that she hadn't taken a good look around her new quarters. Still, her initial observation of the room, exhausted as she had been, turned out to be accurate.

The small bed she had been resting on was pressed up against the wall in the corner furthest from the door. The sheets and blanket were a depressingly dull shade of brown and the iron bed frame which matched the color of the walls only added to the impression that this room was a jail cell rather than the chambers of a guild member. The dresser along the wall on the opposite side was a simple affair, lacking any sort of ornamental design and crafted from planks of some cheap looking wood. The only other object in the room was a three-legged stool, made from the same material as the dresser.

Sinon opened her equipment menu to put on her gear before noticing that she was already wearing fingerless glove on her right hand. She looked down in surprise, taking in the knee-length boots, leather shorts, and tan-colored open-front military jacket that made up her combat attire. Apparently she hadn't even bothered to dress down for the night. No wonder her shoulder felt stiff; she had fallen asleep on top of her rifle.

A familiar pang caught her attention, the system's way of informing her that her character was "hungry." It was possible to ignore that feeling for a period of time, but being full helped greatly with concentrating on more important tasks. In addition, Sinon found herself curious as to what the dining hall looked like. Yulier had pointed out where it was last night, but the two had not gone inside.

She expected the mess hall to be large considering the number of members it would need to hold at peak hours, but it exceeded her expectations in every possible way. The room itself was roughly the size of a sports field; it wouldn't be difficult to comfortably seat 2,000 players inside. The vaulted ceiling stretched high above, supported by pillars set at regular intervals. Seven rows of tables stretched from one end of the room to the other.

There were several people hard at work on the other end of the room even as Sinon entered. She approached them, taking her time to admire the massive wrought-iron chandeliers that hung from the ceiling and illuminated the dining hall. For a brief moment, she wondered exactly how many zombies it would be possible to fell by dropping one of those on them. She shook her head; that was a stupid thought since the «Black Iron Palace» was a safe area.

"Oh? I haven't seen you around before…are you new?"

One of the workers overseeing the cooking in the kitchen area greeted Sinon as she walked up to him. He looked to be middle-aged, with short cropped gray hair that was mostly covered by his chef's hat; the wrinkles around his bespectacled eyes deepened as he smiled warmly. She replied with a nod but did not elaborate.

"Well, glad to have you here," he replied with unfeigned cheerfulness. "You're a little early for breakfast, but let me get you a tray."

"I have some provisions already," Sinon replied. She took a small loaf of bread out of her inventory and showed it to him. In «SLD», all food was equally filling. For Sinon, what mattered most about a meal was convenience and cost.

"Nonsense," the chef replied. "You can't possibly grow strong on a diet like that. You need _real_ food. Now put that away and I'll fetch you something better."

Sinon would have protested more, but the old man seemed insistent. She figured that it would be less trouble to just accept his gesture even though it meant that the durability on the loaf she had planned on eating would reach zero before the next time she felt the pangs of hunger. Sinon hated wasting resources.

His idea of "better" consisted of two slices of buttered toast, a serving of what looked to be eggs, and a small slice of unidentified meat on the side. More extravagant than any meal Sinon had seen in the game, even counting the one or two times she had splurged at the NPC-run restaurants after a particularly good haul.

"Now go ahead and eat everything on your plate," the chef said, a bright smile plastered on his face. "You're a growing child, you need your sustenance."

Sinon stared at him incredulously for a moment. "You do realize that we're still trapped in the game, right? It's not like food here has any nutrients."

Instead of looking offended, the man gave a hearty laugh. "I suppose that's true, but it doesn't hurt to eat well even if your real body doesn't know it, right? Come on, don't be shy. I can guarantee the taste!"

Wordlessly, Sinon took the tray the man offered and brought it with her to a seat in the corner. Instead of eating it right away, she pushed the contents around with a fork, wondering how it was possible for a grown man to be so easygoing while trapped in this world. After a minute, she could feel the weight of his expectant gaze on her back, so she stopped playing with her food and brought a small bite up to her lips.

"It's…good," she exclaimed softly, though no one was around to hear.

Good was an understatement. Between the hearty flavor and the texture, it was by far the best meal Sinon had eaten since this death game began. It was almost enough to make her want to ask for a second serving, but she maintained her discipline. When she was done, she handed the tray back to the chef. If he had expected praise or wanted to hear her opinion, Sinon did not answer that wish, as she turned on her heels and walked off after a quiet "thank you for the meal."

"Eh? Hecate-san, you joined the guild?"

Sinon almost bumped into someone. He was entering the dining hall just as she was exiting. She stood blocking the entrance until he shuffled to the side and allowed her to pass. The speaker had curly brown hair that came down to matching eyes, a somewhat angular face, and a lean build. He was wearing the bulky metal armor that most patrollers in «The Army» wore, only without the helmet.

"Do I know you?" Sinon asked, after he had let her pass.

"You don't remember me? I'm Highwind. You know? The guy who tried to recruit you yesterday? I'm so glad that you decided to join us. We really could use someone as ski—."

The pieces clicked together in Sinon's head. Almost without thinking, she interrupted him, blurting out, "Ah! You're that Stalker-san from yesterday!"

Her outburst drew the gaze of several members of the guild who were walking down the hallway to breakfast. Highwind waved his arms frantically and tried to laugh off Sinon's words, making a show of pretending it was a joke between friends to his colleagues. When the onlookers finally lost interest and turned their attention elsewhere, he gave a relieved sigh and turned back to face Sinon.

"Ok, I'll admit that I didn't make the best first impression," he said. "But you didn't need to say it like that—or out loud, for that matter. Well, I suppose I should be happy that no one I knew personally was around. If my buddies heard you there…they'd never let me hear the end of it."

"I tell it like it is," Sinon replied dryly. She supposed that she was just taking out her frustration on him, but his reaction had been rather amusing. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to head over to the training facility to help out with the practice. If you could point me in the direction, I _might_ just keep your reputation in mind the next time we run into each other."

Highwind pointed down the hall, "Down that way and take the second left. It'll be on your right. And Hecate-san?"

"What is it?"

"Please don't mention the stalker thing again. It wasn't my idea…"

-o-

_These guys are doomed._

That was the first thought which ran through Sinon's mind as she watched the practice from one corner of the room. She had gotten to the training area early, but made no move to join the rest of the guild members in their practice. Of the thirty or so players in the room, there wasn't a single female except herself amongst the group. The person in charge was a burly man with a full beard and a balding head. Despite his fearsome appearance, he seemed to be a bit of a pushover; standing to the side, he was content to let the rest of the group engage in a haphazard target practice as he did nothing but call out the occasional order.

There was only one phrase that came to mind to as she tried to describe what she was seeing: A waste of bullets. The players were shooting at bottles resting on tables and stacked boxes lined up across the width of the room. They used a wide assortment of weaponry. The twangs of bowstrings and staggered bangs of musket-fire filled the room as everyone fired as quickly as they could. Their accuracy, as Sinon had feared, was atrocious. At best, they had a 10% accuracy rate. When a bottle inevitably shattered due to the sheer volume of projectiles aimed in its general direction, the player firing the connecting shot would whoop, leap in the air, and brag to anyone who would listen.

_Pathetic_.

Well, she _had_ promised Thinker that she would get them into shape for boss battles. Sinon sighed. This was not going to be fun at all.

"You're the one in charge of this group of misfits?" Sinon asked, approaching the burly man.

He looked at her with one eye closed, "Sorry girlie, but we don't take children with us to the front."

Sinon resisted the urge to kick him in the shins. A task that was a lot harder to do than she expected. Repeating her sniper's mantra inside her head, she forced herself to calm down. The process only took a few seconds, but that was still far too long for Sinon's tastes.

"My name is Sinon," she introduced herself. "I'm supposed to help train the ranged personnel as a favor to Thinker. Judging by what I've seen so far, they'll need it."

He stared incredulously, exclaiming, "_You're_ the one Thinker-san informed me of? I dunno what that guy is thinking, handing a whelp like you the reins. Might be more to Kibaou's claims than I thought."

"What's that windbag saying now?" Sinon demanded. Finding out that Kibaou was not only a member of «The Army» but a _ranking_ _officer_ to boot was the biggest single reason she regretted joining the guild.

"It's none of your business," the man answered gruffly as he glared at her. "But yes, I am in charge of this lot. The name's Masate. Rank of Sergeant, not that it matters to you…being '_special'_ and all."

The resentment in his voice was so obvious that only the most oblivious of airheads would have missed it. Sinon was the intruder in _his_ realm. She was to be tolerated, barely, thanks to Thinker's orders, but the man in front of her clearly considered her a threat to his authority.

"_Well,"_ she thought, _"I don't give a damn about his pride. I'm here to give these pitiful excuses for soldiers the skills they need to maybe not get killed. I don't even want to be here in the first place. If Sergeant Smartass here has a problem with that, he can take that rank he seems so proud of and ram it up his—"_

"Since you're doing absolutely nothing," Sinon noted. "I'm going to keep my promise with Thinker and teach them what they need to know."

"Wait a second," Masate interrupted, "they're already doing what they need to. Target practice."

Sinon rolled her eyes. Really, was this guy this dense naturally or did he take lessons? It didn't matter how accurate these guys were if they were dead. Survival came first, dps came second. That was the cardinal rule of the frontliners.

She ignored his protests and walked behind the firing line. With their accuracy, she really did not want to be in front of them unless they were aiming directly at her; that was probably the safest spot to be in.

"Everyone, stop what you're doing!" Sinon shouted.

She was certain that she could be heard even over the din, but not a single person put his weapon down. Not one to repeat an action if she knew the result would be unfavorable, Sinon shouldered her rifle and took aim.

Half of the room jumped at the sound of the Hecate discharging. The rest of them turned startled heads quickly in Sinon's direction. The poor player who Sinon had shot past collapsed onto his rear in shock. Her bullet had flown by only a hand's width away from his ear. Over in the back of the room, a bottle exploded into shimmering particles. To the players in the room, the distance might have been incredible, but Sinon regularly took shots that were far more difficult.

"Now that I have your attention," she began, "we're going to change how this training is working."

"_You're_ going to teach _us?_" one player, a teenage boy, laughed. Sinon had taken note of him during the practice. She had tagged him as a potential troublemaker due to his better than average (for the group) accuracy and somewhat arrogant behavior.

"Got a problem with that?"

The young man laughed, "You can say that again. What makes you qualified to give us orders? Any halfwit could have made that shot you just did if they had a gun with a fancy scope like you. Tell you what Missy, why don't you go off and pick up a skill that suits you more—like «Cooking» or «Sewing», and leave the fighting to us men?"

Several of the players at the makeshift shooting gallery snickered. Sinon noted that Masate was one of them.

_Great. Not only do I have to deal with morons, but bigoted sexist morons to boot. It might be better just to let them all die off during their first boss battle and save myself the trouble of strangling them in their sleep myself._

Of course, Sinon couldn't do that. She had made a promise to Thinker that she would train his people and she intended to keep her end of the bargain no matter how irritating these players were. Instead of arguing with the young man or acknowledging his taunt, Sinon equipped her old pistol; the one she had bought on her first day in «SLD».

She shouldered the Hecate and drew the pistol, feeling the nostalgic wooden grip in her hand. She was over her «Maximum Weight Limit» now, which meant that she was hit with a movement penalty and her Agility-stat based accuracy bonus was negated, but that didn't matter at all right now.

Sinon calmly took aim and pulled the trigger. Her target shattered.

"Beginner's luck," the young man who had taunted her said.

Sinon reloaded, pleasantly surprised by the efficiency with which she did so considering how long it had been since she used the antiquated weapon, and took aim again. A second bottle was soon nothing more than prismatic dust in the air.

"Coincidence," the man stubbornly claimed. But next to him, several of the players were muttering appreciatively.

Sinon reloaded again, this time aiming for a target she had saved. From her position, the bottle was located right by the talkative young man's head. The thought of missing on purpose and "accidentally" shooting that irritant in the face almost brought a smile to her face. Almost. He would survive it, since they were in a safe zone, but the way the physics engine translated force would mean that he would either be dazed or knocked out.

But Sinon didn't miss and after her performance, even the shell-shocked doubter had to admit that her accuracy was top-notch. Sinon holstered her pistol and unequipped it, taking a few experimental steps to make sure her movement speed was back to normal. She now had the undivided attention of everyone in the room.

"You asked about my qualifications to teach you how to fight?" she asked. Despite how quietly she was speaking, everyone was listening carefully, hanging on to every word she spoke. "I've been a participant in 22 boss fights; 25, if you count non-progression field and sewer bosses. I've seen many players who thought they were ready bite the dust and have to be put down once they «Turned»." The term she had tossed out was slang for how players killed by a monster were zombified. "Boss hunting is not a joke. In this death game, one mistake, one bad pull of the trigger, and you might be the next to go. Thinker knows this. All people who've fought on the frontlines know it. I suggest you pay attention and learn it."

There were nods all around and brief murmurs of acknowledgement.

"Now," she continued. "I know that Sergeant Masate had you all doing target practice. That wasn't entirely wrong, considering how bad you all are at it." There were a few snickers and ribbing between friends in the division. Sinon ignored that behavior and went on. "But first, I want to ask you one thing. Why the hell are you all lined up like ducks crossing a road?"

There was no answer to her question. An awkward silence filled the room as the players looked to one another, hoping that someone would have the answer. Sinon waited for someone to respond. Her body language made it clear that she would not continue until she received a reply.

Finally, one man, who looked to be in his late twenties, hesitantly raised a hand in the air. He had apparently regressed into the behavioral patterns of a schoolchild. "Because it's fair that way?" he asked, stumbling over the words a little. "That way everyone is the same distance from the targets…"

Sinon clapped her hands slowly. "Thank you for answering," she said, looking around at the rest of the players present. "At least _one_ of you has the guts to answer." She faced the man who had answered and added, "But do you think that a boss gives a damn about what's fair and what's not? I want you to get into two lines. Gun users and arbalesters in front and archers in the back. While you _can_ arc a shot over the heads of others with a crossbow, it's not as easy as with a bow. Practice shooting like this for a while. Once you get used to this, we can move on to some more advanced tactics."

If they were going to fight as a group, the archers had to get used to arcing their shots. Of course, fighting in formation also had a few disadvantages, namely what would happen to them if the boss ever got past the tanks. She would have to make them practice how to swiftly break and enter formation. After that, they'd need to learn how to work as a team with the tanks and the melee dps. Finally, the most important lesson she would have to teach them was how to fight as an individual. Talking about teamwork and working together sounded great on paper, but in the chaos of a boss fight, it was easy to find yourself isolated from everyone else.

Sinon sighed. There was so much that these men didn't know about fighting district bosses that just came to her naturally by now. She hadn't counted on them being _this_ green. She already noticed another issue with how they were shooting that was going to be a problem if they didn't correct it.

"Stop," she called out.

Suprisingly, everyone immediately halted what they were doing immediately and turned to face her. At least they were good at following orders.

"There's one thing I want to confirm about how you're all aiming…"

Sinon walked over to the tables and placed an empty bottle atop a stack of crates. She stood next to the boxes, turning to face the group.

"You there," she said, pointing at a random player. "Shoot the bottle."

"But—"

"Do it," she stated again, unwilling to listen to him.

Hesitantly, he took aim, raising his musket to his shoulder. His arms were shaking, nervousness plain on his face. His first shot missed completely and hit the far wall.

"Again."

The man reloaded and shot again. This time, Sinon felt a hard impact and her vision went white for a second. Her head snapped backwards as a violent force struck her in the forehead and she reeled backwards two steps, nearly colliding with a table. She wanted to cry out, but forced herself to regain her footing without uttering a sound. Sinon felt dazed but she fought down the feeling and cleared her head.

"What's your name?" Sinon asked in a neutral tone.

The man answered nervously, "Sataki."

"Congratulations Sataki-san," Sinon remarked humorlessly. "If this was a boss battle, you just headshot one of the melee who was standing between you and the boss as a shield."

Several of the players watching events unfold snickered before a glare from Sinon silenced them all.

"Don't single him out. I noticed all of you doing the same thing," she said. "When you're shooting, where are you placing the target if your targeting circle is larger than what you're aiming at?"

The man who had shot Sinon answered sheepishly, "In the middle?"

"Was that a question or an answer?"

"Er—an answer?"

Sinon sighed to herself. Silica had more of a backbone than these guys. She wondered how they picked members for this division; it wouldn't be surprising if they had drawn names out of a hat to fill the spots.

"Why bother putting the target right in the middle?" Sinon demanded critically, resisting the urge to let loose with a string of expletives that would have caused her entire message to be censored had «SLD» come with a profanity filter. "You have an equal chance to hit anywhere in your targeting circle. Does it really matter if the target is at the center of the circle or at the edge as long as the entire target is covered by the damn thing?"

Judging from the blank stares she was receiving, the message hadn't quite sunken in just yet. She'd have to put it into simpler terms.

"If there is someone inside of your targeting circle, you do –NOT— pull the TRIGGER!" Sinon exclaimed, yelling at a few points to accentuate her point. "I don't give a shit whether you need to reduce the likelihood of hitting your target or if you need to delay your shot or even if you need to move to another damn spot in order to get a clear shot. You do NOT risk hitting another player. Ever!"

Sinon took a few deep breaths. This was not good, she was starting to rant. Her language was becoming coarser as well due to her annoyance at how dense these players were. Her social skills were never her strong point and that fact wasn't helped by almost half a year's worth of minimal contact with other human beings. If these guys didn't shape up quickly, she feared for her ability to speak without interjecting profanity between every other word in a sentence.

As she walked back towards the other end of the room, she noticed someone standing in the back of the room. Even from this distance, she could sense the amusement radiating from beneath the folds of the girl's hooded cloak. _What was «The Rat» doing here?_

"If you'll excuse me," Sinon finished curtly, "there's something I need to take care of. Keep up with the target practice and you'd better keep in mind what I just said. Try not to kill each other."

Under her breath, she added, "Convenient as that might be for me."

-o-

"So…Sinonon has taken up a guild at last," Argo noted with a bit of a smirk.

Sinon looked over the information broker. Nothing about her seemed to have changed at all. She was still wearing a brown cloak over her armor and her expression, as usual, flitted between cheerful and mischievous.

"It wasn't entirely my decision," Sinon replied, motioning for the other girl to follow. "And when are you going to stop using that ridiculous nickname?"

Unfortunately for Sinon, Argo had overheard Asuna's use of the nickname several months ago after a boss-clearing meeting. Unlike Asuna, Argo was prone to tack on more than one additional "on" at the end of the name. Especially when she wanted a favor or an "exchange of information."

"You should embrace your nicknames," Argo replied, with a grin that split her face. She, of course, was widely known as «The Rat»; as much for her whisker markings as for her dealings.

"I'll keep that in mind—not. What brings you to the «Black Iron Castle»?" Sinon asked, curious as to what business her friend was here on. Knowing Argo, there was very little possibility of her coming here on a whim. «The Army» did not allow outsiders inside the guild headquarters for no reason.

"Oh, you know. Sightseeing, taking in the local attractions," she answered. Gesturing at the bleak, dark gray walls, she added, "The wonderful décor." She waved cheerfully at an ornery looking fellow who was rushing down the hallway; if he noticed at all, he showed no sign of it. "And of course, how could I forget the locals and their _lovely_ dispositions."

Sinon snorted softly. She could always count on Argo's sardonic humor to capture her own thoughts and put them into words. The older girl was witty to a fault, but also seemed to know exactly what to say to defuse a situation if things got out of hand. Sinon had yet to pick up that latter skill; she wasn't even inclined to try.

But the sniper noticed that her friend hadn't answered her question. The very fact that Argo hadn't set a price for the information, even as a joke, told Sinon that the information broker wasn't willing to disclose any details about her current job.

"Well, we're here. Home sweet—well, whatever it could be called. Jail cell, maybe?" Sinon announced.

She pushed open the door to her room and let Argo in. The information broker immediately made for the bed and sat down, jumping so that she landed on the center with great force. Argo soon found out that the bed was not quite as comfortable as she had initially believed.

"I don't know how you manage to sleep on this thing," she complained, rubbing her rear. The fall hadn't hurt her, but some habits carried over from reality to this virtual world.

"I've only been here one night," Sinon replied, shutting the door behind her. She moved the stool over and sat down facing Argo.

Argo lowered her hood and leaned forwards with a grin, idly kicking her feet.

"What is it?" Sinon asked hesitantly. With «The Rat», that look usually meant the recipient could expect something unpleasant of a variable degree to happen to him or her.

"Oh nothing," she answered cheerfully. "But to think. Sinonon—in a guild. I need to collect from Asuna later."

Sinon tilted her head to the side a little to show her confusion. "Collect?"

"Don't concern yourself with it," Argo replied, waving a hand dismissively. "We had a little thing going on about whether it would be Ki-bou or you who would give in first."

Sinon felt something snap inside of her. All the tension that had built up inside her since this morning came pouring out like floodwaters through a collapsed dam. Of course, there was only one outlet.

"You…made a BET?" Sinon screamed. She hoped the sound of her voice wouldn't carry out through the closed door into the hallway.

"Just a small one between friends," Argo explained.

Sinon wasn't through yet. Argo's words implied something that bothered her more than just the bet itself.

"Leaving that aside… You bet AGAINST me!?"

It was quite some time before Sinon ended her sulking and turned around to face Argo again.

"Sinonon…"

"Sinonononon…"

"Sinonononononononononononon—"

"Argh! Quit it already! Alright, I'm not really angry at you, ok?" Even though she knew her friend was only pleading half seriously, Sinon couldn't help but forgive Argo. The information dealer was one of the few people in «SLD» that Sinon could truly drop her mask around without worrying. That wasn't something Sinon was willing to relinquish for a petty reason.

"Nihihi, I knew you wouldn't be able to resist," Argo snickered.

"Don't tempt me," Sinon warned. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and spun around atop her stool to face Argo. "So, if you're not going to tell me why you're here, why are you still sticking around?"

Argo frowned, "I'm being paid to act as a messenger this time around. I haven't received a reply, so there's nothing to do besides stick around."

"Don't try to dodge the question, Argo," Sinon replied. Both of them knew that the way a messenger job worked was that the deliverer was paid in full upon successfully relaying the message, regardless of whether there was an answer or not. Unless the receiver had an immediate reply, there was no need to wait since the recipient could just send a courier of his or her own choosing if it were necessary.

That brought a grin to Argo's face. "You're sharp," she noted. "Though that's to be expected of someone with the wits to stay alive as a solo on the frontlines."

Sinon waited for a complete answer, tapping on the floor with a foot as she did.

"Rumor has it that Thinker is going to announce something big today," Argo concluded. "As an information dealer, I can't let this opportunity slip by. Besides—anyone would be curious and take a look if they walked by a room and heard someone they knew screaming at the top of her lungs. But you have a question in your eyes that doesn't have anything to do with my business."

Was Sinon being that obvious?

"Yes, you _are_ that obvious," Argo said.

Sinon looked at the older girl in shock. _Was there a «Mind Reading» Skill or something?_ She was fairly certain that she hadn't said anything out loud. The thought of Argo being able to read the thoughts of others would explain so much…and yet the idea also scared Sinon more than any boss she had ever faced down.

Argo smiled knowingly and answered, "You're not the type that would talk with anyone, no matter how well you know them, just to engage in idle chatter. And since that 'anyone' in this case is me, you obviously have a question that needs answering."

Sinon made a mental note to never get on this girl's bad side.

"Tell me as much as you're willing to about the leaders in this guild," Sinon requested.

She wasn't particularly interested in Thinker since there was plenty of information about him that circulated amongst the players. But try as she might, she couldn't seem to pry anything about Kibaou or Yulier out of her fellow guild members.

"Well, let's see," Argo answered. "I can tell you what I know for 200 «Col» unless you want to get into more detailed personal information about them."

"Anything you think will be useful. And take the fee out of the bet money you won from Asuna," Sinon replied sarcastically. "After all, I _did_ help you win."

Argo mouthed the last of Sinon's words before laughing. "Did I ever tell you how good you'd be in this business? Alright, I'll concede this point to you, Sinonon."

Argo was giving in far too easily; Sinon made a mental note to ask Asuna exactly how much they had placed on that bet.

"Alright, let's see…starting at the top is as good a place as any," Argo said, leaning back and propping herself up against the wall with Sinon's pillow as a cushion. "There's not much that isn't already common knowledge about Thinker. He's rather idealistic and tries to divert as much of «The Army»'s resources as he can towards helping players who can't yet fend for themselves. Almost no one has anything bad to say about him unless they're talking about how he should be funneling more resources into clearing the game rather than helping people outside of his guild. Oh, and he happens to be the person who was in charge of the «MMO Today» information site. A lot of people respect him for that alone."

After a brief pause, Argo asked, "So who do you want to hear about next? Kibaou, I'm assuming, due to our run-in with him in the first district?"

Sinon nodded in response. "Knowing your enemy is the first step in any encounter."

Argo smiled knowingly, "Yeesh, only a day in the guild and you've already pegged one of the top brass as your foe? Moving a bit fast there Sinonon. Let's see what I have on him…"

The older girl waved her hands over her menus and swiftly selected a few buttons. A thin, leather-bound book materialized in the air and dropped into her waiting hands. Her brown eyes quickly scanned the pages, taking in all of the information relevant to Sinon's query.

"Ah!" she exclaimed, looking up suddenly. "Here's my entry on him. Had him listed under 'Cactus-brains' instead of by name. Let's see here—Kibaou's the second-in-command after Thinker and the leader of the «Striker» unit for «The Army». Publicly, he's in charge of discipline and he makes a grand show of maintaining order. There're a few accusations against him for corruption and showing favoritism, but nothing that can be substantiated. Psh! I didn't realize some of my sources were such amateurs. I guess it's true that if you want a job done correctly…"

"You're going off topic, Argo," Sinon noted. All this information might be useful for Argo, but Sinon couldn't care less about guild political maneuvering.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch," Argo chastised her. "You want to know whether he's still the same bundle of joy he was after the fight with «The Gatekeeper», right? Well, he's made a habit of delivering a speech about the 'evils of beta testers' every Sunday at noon. The man throws open his window and rants to whoever will listen to him like some sort of crazed preacher trying to form a cult. I thought it was a bit of a joke at first, but he's actually built up quite the following. It's part of the reason why Kibaou's in such a powerful position in this guild; his supporters pressured Thinker into it."

"Why doesn't Thinker do something about it? It goes against his vision for «The Army», doesn't it?"

Argo shrugged, "You ever see a mob lynch someone before? Better yet, have you ever seen what happens to someone who tries to _stop_ a mob from lynching someone before? Thinker can't do anything about it and both of them know it."

Sinon thought about that for a second before sitting down slowly. She hadn't even realized when she had jumped to her feet. Still, Kibaous's claim to power and his irrational hatred of beta players was stupid. There was no real reason why beta testers should still be ostracized anymore considering they had long since passed the last district that was cleared during the beta phase of the game. To think that there were people actually willing to listen to that message…

_What the hell is wrong with people?_

Sinon forced her annoyance down. "What about Yulier?"

Argo flipped through her book some more. Just as she was about to answer, a soft knock sounded at Sinon's door. Sinon jumped off her seat immediately. Argo, seemed to be possessed of a little more self-control, merely looked towards the door, pulled her hood up, and then put away her book, sending it back into her inventory with a brief blue glow.

Sinon opened the door for the person on the other side. It was Yulier.

"Speak of the devil…" she muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Yulier asked. She looked past Sinon and into her room. Noting Argo's presence, she met the girl's eyes and nodded once. "Good, I was supposed to tell the two of you that Thinker requests a meeting. Finding both of you in the same place saves me the trouble of having to track you down."

The two girls wasted no time at all in following Yulier down the corridor towards Thinker's office. Sinon noted that she was receiving scowls behind her back from many of the people she passed. It seemed that Kibaou had wasted no time at all in spreading rumors about her throughout the guild. She ignored them as best she could and soon enough, they had reached the heavy double doors that lead to Thinker's study.

"Go on in," Yulier said, pushing a door open. She followed the girls inside and shut the door behind her. "Thinker, they've arrived."

Thinker's office was at least three times the size of Sinon's small bedroom in the headquarters. Three large windows on the far side, behind Thinker's desk, let in streams of light from outside. It did little to make the chamber look more cheery. The room was rather bare, not what one would expect from the leader of the largest guild in the game. Aside from the rug on the floor, the only non-standard furnishing was a mannequin and a weapons rack in one corner. The dummy showcased Thinker's old armor; a high-quality set of chainmail that he had worn into battle before responsibility to the guild had forced him off the frontlines. The weapons rack held the spear that Sinon had seen him with when he confronted the orange players last night. The man himself looked up from the piles of documents on top of his desk. There was a lot more paperwork on his table today than there had been when Sinon was in this office last night. Thinker spared a smile for his underling before setting down the sheet he was perusing.

"Thank you, Yulier-san," he replied. "I'll handle everything from here."

Her expression said that she wanted to stay, but Yulier bowed her head slightly and exited the room, leaving the two girls inside.

"Alright, so let's get down to business," Thinker said as soon as the door closed. "Argo-san, I have a message for you to deliver regarding raid planning. Please bring it to Heathcliff-dono. He'll see to it that the «DDA» gets informed as well."

"Not a problem," Argo answered. "Standard fee?"

Thinker nodded and handed her a sealed letter, "Standard fee it is."

"What's this? A «Sealed Envelope»?" Argo asked, grinning and waving the slip in the air. "Don't you trust me, Thinker?"

"I'll pass on that question," Thinker replied with a laugh. "But it _does_ look more official this way, doesn't it? And you won't need to go through a cross-examination on the other end about the exact wording I used."

"Fair enough," Argo said. "But before I go, I'd like to know why there's this rumor going around about an important announcement. Not exactly something an information broker should be left in the dark about, I would say."

"Hmm? Oh, that. It's not something that you would be able to profit off of," Thinker answered. "Just an official in-guild announcement concerning the formation of our Ranged Division and the chain of command for that unit."

"That's all!?" Argo exclaimed. "You Army-types put too much emphasis on bureaucracy. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. So? Who're you filling the top spot with?"

"Yulier-san," Thinker replied without hesitation. "She's well organized and has a good head on her shoulders. Not to mention I can trust in her to get things done."

"I suppose you _would_ know that she has a good head on her shoulders," Argo said in her most mischievous tone, "considering how much time you spent staring at her face while I was trying to deliver my message."

Sinon watched her guild master go from calm and in control to completely speechless in two seconds flat. Argo made a show of inspecting her fingernails as she waited for a reply, but she was clearly enjoying the experience. Thinker struggled to say something before gulping and loosening the collar on his dark-green uniform.

"Rat got your tongue?" Argo asked innocently.

"Y-y-you…" Thinker sputtered. "Gah! Don't you have a letter to deliver? Get on with it already!"

Argo retreated from the room, leaving behind mocking laughter which cut off as the door closed behind her. Sinon caught a glimpse of Yulier peeking inside with a confused expression on her face.

Thinker collected himself quickly. "That girl has a horrid personality," he noted softly. "But she's also the best in the business." Then, as if just realizing that Sinon was still in the room, he exclaimed, "Sorry for the wait. I wanted to hear your opinion as to the ranged unit we're setting up. You've had a chance to meet them this morning, correct?"

"I have," Sinon affirmed. "But frankly, they're nowhere near ready for the frontlines. How did you pick those guys? Did you just give a bunch of people who have never been outside of town rifles and tell them to fight? Because a lot of them seem like they've only recently taken the «Basic Firearms» skill."

Thinker rubbed the back of his head apologetically, "I agree that they're inexperienced. And your guess was surprisingly close to the mark, I'm afraid. When we were picking from the pool of applicants for the frontlines, Kibaou-san selected all of the ones with combat experience for the melee divisions. I have to agree with that decision; it takes a bit more discipline to stand right up against a horde of enemies or a boss than to shoot from range."

Sinon shifted her weight and kept quiet about her opinion on that particular issue. People who fought with swords and spears rarely considered how much self-control was required in order to be a successful pure archer or gunner in «SLD». She herself was guilty on occasion of thinking of melee fighters as undisciplined soldiers who charged into battle swinging their weapons without a care for where they were aiming.

"So, what's your assessment? How soon until they'll be ready for combat?" Thinker asked. "I know I'm asking for a lot, but the sooner we have an organized force in charge of clearing the districts methodically, the better."

"They certainly won't be ready for the 23rd district boss. If I push them hard and can get them into the field every day, they _might_ be ready for the 24th district," Sinon estimated. "It depends on how much of a tolerance you have for risk."

"How much risk are we talking about?"

"I can have them ready for taking on a boss in less than a week if their player levels are in the 20's," Sinon answered without a hint of conceit. "That's assuming they follow the training regime I'll put them through. But they'll have to jump straight into combat. No more of the easy target practice they've been set up with here. They'll risk their lives every day, first in the sewers to level their combat skills and then on the frontlines for the experience they need to survive. Oh, and I'll need access to a few of melee players, preferably the tanks. That should help if things turn sour during training."

"It sounds a bit reckless but then again, so is sending anyone to fight a boss. About your other request…the thing is, Kibaou-san, or rather, someone he promoted, is in charge of the heavy armor division," Thinker said, scratching his head. "I don't think you'll be able to persuade him to lend you some soldiers…not with the history behind you two."

"You know about that?"

Sinon was rather surprised and it showed on her face, although only if one knew what to look for. She hadn't expected anyone to know about what happened in the amphitheatre outside of the people who had been a part of the first district boss raid.

Thinker answered a little sheepishly, "I asked Argo-san for a background check on you; I don't usually do it out of respect for the privacy of our members, but the— disagreement— that Yulier-san and Kibaou-san were swept up in over your entry was reason enough for me to request it of her."

"And what did Argo say about me?" Sinon asked, trying to seem as if she didn't really care if he answered her or not.

"Ah, at first she told me to, and I quote, 'screw myself,' unquote. She also mentioned a few choice locations where I could 'shove my curiosity.' When I proved persistent, she demanded an exorbitant fee that she knew would be impossible to justify in the budget and refused to haggle until I told her exactly why I needed the information," Thinker said, smiling at the memory. "You have a good friend in that girl. I hadn't realized you two knew each other on anything other than a professional level."

Sinon felt shocked. _Argo_ had done all that for her sake? Defied the leader of the largest guild in order to protect her past? It seemed as if she wasn't the only one that had built a persona since coming to this world.

Thinker took her silence as an indication that she had nothing more to report to him regarding training. He opened a menu with a flick of his wrist and a few button presses. "Well, it's getting near lunchtime," he noted as he checked the time. "And it's a point of pride here that we're able to feed every guild member each day without fail and still have the resources for other projects. You're dismissed, Sinon-kun."

-o-

"You're really going to trust that girl to lead players into battle?" Yulier asked as she glanced back to make sure the door had fully closed behind Sinon.

Thinker picked up a document and looked it over. The armory was requesting more materials for the smiths already. Underneath that were the estimates of what they would need in order to fill the order the Striker Division was asking for. Gearing up for the frontlines was emptying the guild coffers faster than Thinker had imagined possible.

"I hope she gets to the point where she can lead them in a boss raid," Thinker replied. "Since that would mean that there's mutual trust between them and her. But _you're_ going to be the official leader of the Ranged Division."

Yulier did a double take at Thinker's announcement. Come to think of it, this was the first time he had made his intentions known to her. Somehow, he had taken for granted that she would just know.

"I think there are more quaili—" she began.

"There aren't," Thinker interjected. "You're the best one for the post."

He signed the request form that he had been looking over. Everything seemed to be properly accounted for and the cost of materials was within the budget.

"But surely—"

Thinker sighed, "Is there a reason why you don't want the job?"

The nice thing about Yulier was that she was always honest with him. Thinker could count on her to give an honest assessment of anything; unlike the cronies Kibaou seemed to surround himself with, she never once tried to play up to Thinker's position as guild leader. Of course, that also meant that she wasn't afraid to scold Thinker for the things he did or planned to do.

"Of course I have reasons! The first being that this is the dumbest idea you've come up with yet," Yulier exclaimed. "Are you purposely trying to rile up Kibaou and his supporters? Your position is precarious enough as is."

Thinker set aside the papers he had been looking over. Convincing Yulier wasn't something he would be able to do while multi-tasking.

"I'm not purposely riling them up," he argued. "If I don't try to get the Ranged Division combat-ready as soon as possible, he'll just claim that I'm too cautious and unreliable to stay as the guild master on the grounds that I was unable to convince the other guilds to let the «ALF» lead on the frontlines. Plus, we both know that things will be a disaster if he goes behind my back and sets up another of his lackeys as a Division Leader. Kibaou mistakenly believes that being a demagogue is the same thing as being a leader. He's a good person to have around at times because he's unnaturally good at garnering support for a cause, but he's not a battlefield leader. Having you around as a Division Leader will mean that he'll be forced to listen to the opinion of others before facing a boss; and _that_ will save lives."

Yulier looked like she was convinced by his argument, but she answered softly, "I still don't like this…between Sinon's admission and what you're planning here, it'll be far too easy for Kibaou to claim that you're playing favorites."

"Don't worry about that," Thinker replied, returning to the vast pile of paperwork he had for the day. "He's not one who's in a position to argue that particular point. And any rumors he might spread on the matter will disappear soon enough once they see how effective of a leader you are."

The silver-haired woman before him smiled softly at the compliment, "Alright, I suppose you know what you're doing. I'll try to live up to your expectations then, Thinker."

* * *

Unlike this morning, the dining hall was crowded by the time Sinon arrived. The far end of the room was packed with people waiting in line for their meals and about half of the seating was taken already. The noise level in the room was high; a hundred different conversations filled the air while the occasional burst of raucous laughter rang off the vaulted ceiling.

Sinon made her way to the end of the line and took her place behind someone dressed in the full dark-grey heavy armor and green cloak that was the uniform of the melee divisions. An extra emblem, a downwards-pointing sword, underneath the guild symbol on his armor marked the man as a member of the Striker Division. Sinon scowled. _One of Kibaou's men_.

Still, nothing happened until Sinon neared the front of the line. It was then that another group of similarly armored men walked over to her. Their faces were all obscured by the same helmet, shaped somewhat like an upside-down pail with holes punched in the visor so that the wearer could see out.

"Make way," the one in the front demanded. He placed a gauntleted hand on Sinon's shoulder as if he were going to push her back to clear a space.

Sinon brushed his hand off, annoyed by the contact and the man's tone. "Get in line," she said softly. It could barely be heard over the din of the room.

The man grinned. He seemed to have taken her warning as a sign of weakness. "What was that? I couldn't quite hear you. Now, make way. Can't you see that our spot in line was reserved?"

The man that she had been standing behind the entire time now turned around. He immediately backed up the newcomer's claim. The part of the dining hall nearest them quieted down as the people began to watch the spectacle unfold.

"Get in line like everyone else," Sinon answered, slightly more loudly this time. She narrowed her eyes into an icy glare. "Just because you get preferential treatment from that cactus-haired moron doesn't mean anyone's going to worship the ground you walk on. You're _not_ intimidating. You're _not_ special. And you're definitely _not_ getting my place in this line."

"What?!" the man exclaimed, his grin twisting about into a grimace of anger. "You _dare_ speak about Kibaou-sama in that way!?"

Sinon had just opened her mouth to deliver a retort when someone clapped a hand on the man's shoulder. The sound of flesh striking the pauldron rang out like a drum, causing the entire group of Strikers to turn around quickly. They were confronted by a group of people roughly twice their numbers; all of them were members of the Ranged Division.

"Now, now," Sataki remarked, taking his hand off the man's shoulder and giving it a shake as if clearing something disgusting off of it. "Let's not get into an extended argument here. We're all friends, right?"

"Who the hell are you?" the man practically shouted, spittle flying from the corners of his mouth.

Sataki wiped his face with a sleeve. "Oh, just someone who's looking out for your best interests," he remarked. "Best interests here meaning that our drill sergeant over there won't have to tear you a new one."

"Drill sergeant?" The man looked back at Sinon before bursting out into laughter. "This little _girl_ is _your_ drill sergeant?" He clutched at his sides in an attempt to hold his laughter in; it didn't work.

"Tell me again how many boss fights you've lived through?" Sataki asked. "Was it one or two? I forget…Oh that's right, you haven't been to any! My mistake. Are you sure you want to mess with someone who has survived over two dozen?"

The man's laughter stopped abruptly and he glanced back at Sinon again, this time with his mouth wide open. He turned back to Sataki.

"Tch, fine," was all he said before waving at his men to follow behind to the end of the line.

"Phew." Sataki let out a sigh of relief as he watched them saunter off and remarked on the situation with a muttered "_abunai, abunai"_. "Well then, ma'am, let's get you your meal before we draw any more attention from Kibaou-san's crowd, shall we?"

Before Sinon could protest, he had taken her by the shoulders and marched her to the counter where the smiling chef from this morning gave her an extra-large helping of bread and soup. The cook was saying something about "needing food to grow strong" but Sinon couldn't catch exactly what was said before Sataki half-pushed her over to the table where it seemed the entire Ranged Division was seated.

They seemed far more accepting of her than they were this morning. In fact, several of them, Sataki included, were downright friendly. There was no shortage of greetings as she took her spot between two members of the division.

"I don't see Masate around anywhere. Does he eat elsewhere?" Sinon asked in between bites. _Damn, that chef was good_. The bread was buttery in both taste and texture.

To her surprise, several of the players around her broke into wide grins. "Here it comes," one said, nudging his friend in the side. "Sataki's going to have fun with his story-telling again."

The man in question quieted his companions with an "oh, just shut up already" look and took a deep breath.

"I guess we need to begin with a little about Masate-san," he said. "He actually wanted to be a part of the Striker Division, but since he wasn't hand-chosen by Kibaou during the formation of the group, he was left out. So he tried out for the Heavy Armor Division. He didn't make it in there either. That came as quite the blow to his pride. You can imagine how it must have felt for him to get put into the Ranged Division, along with all the other rejects."

"Speak for yourself!" someone called out from the side, prompting the group to burst into laughter.

"Shut up the hell up. Who's telling this story? You or me?" Sataki shot back, triggering more laughter.

"So, where was I?" he continued, ignoring the reaction of his peers. "Oh, right. As you can imagine, he didn't take to being a leftover too well. But Masate-san tried to make due by asserting leadership early on. Most of us just didn't give a damn, so we let him lead. Not that he ever did much except stand aside and bark orders. Must take after his role model, Kibaou-san, or something. In case you haven't noticed, we're not exactly fans of "Striker Division Leader-sama" here. Repeatedly being told how useless you are and how much more awesome the melee guys are than you tends to do that, funnily enough."

Sataki's method of story-telling was oddly disjointed due to his tendency to interject his own thoughts in the middle of the flow, but the rest of the Ranged Division seemed to find it entertaining. That, or they just liked to listen to someone give voice to their own thoughts without any of the risk of being caught.

"Get to the point already," Sinon interrupted. She had just finished her bread and was moving on to the soup. She didn't want to waste time after the meal listening because she had to get them down to the shooting gallery again to see if the Ranged Division had corrected their mistakes from this morning.

Sataki looked a little displeased at being interrupted again but met her request. "Right…about Masate-san. He didn't like the idea of someone coming and supplanting his authority. And when you walked in, I think he took offense at being replaced by a girl." Sataki raised his hands as Sinon's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Not that there's anything wrong with that!" he added hastily. "But after you left, he tried to reassert himself, first by trying to match your feat of shooting four bottles down in a row. He must have wasted at least a hundred rounds and never hit two in succession. _That_ got him pretty frustrated and he must have not been thinking really clearly afterwards because he tried to prove he was tougher than you by taking a bullet between the eyes and shaking it off."

"And how did that go?" Sinon asked.

"About as well as you might imagine," Sataki replied. "We brought him down to the infirmary a while before lunch and the lady in charge down there, a really nice woman by the way, said he _should_ wake up in an hour or two." He turned to face a teenage boy who had broken into a roguish grin, "Hey Raker, how did it feel to headshot that windbag?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Sataki-san," he replied, still grinning like a madman. Sinon recognized him as the one who had called her "Missy" when they had first met. "We are all deeply saddened by the unfortunate training accident that has befallen our companion-in-arms..."

That set everyone off again and it took a few minutes for the Ranged Division to settle down enough for Sataki to raise his glass and exclaim, "A toast to our newest member!"

Cheers rose up from the members of the division, drawing glances from guild members who weren't a part of the group. Sinon endured several hard pats to the back; each with enough force, to her annoyance, to cause her to spill a little of her soup onto the table. For better or for worse, she had been accepted as "one of the boys" within this little group of «The Army».

* * *

"That concludes the explanations about this boss's abilities," Asuna finished. "Are there any questions?"

The members of the raid group all nodded their heads in understanding. The three major clearing guilds, «Knights of Blood», «Divine Dragon Alliance», and «Aincrad Liberation Force», were all present along with representatives from several other smaller guilds. There were a few unguilded players present at the meeting as well. One of them approached Sinon immediately after the meeting concluded.

"Yo Sinon," he greeted her as he lowered the hood to his black cloak.

"Kirito." Sinon acknowledged him with a nod of her head. "What's the deal with the cloak?"

He scratched his cheek, "Ah…well, I figured it'd be best to keep a low profile since this meeting is in the first district. It'd be bad if someone recognized me as 'that damned Beater,' wouldn't it?"

"No one at the boss planning meeting cares about something that happened half a year ago, Kirito," Sinon noted dryly. "You've proven yourself in every district so far. All they care about is how well you can swing your sword."

"Still…can't be too careful," Kirito replied. "The first district is a notoriously bad place to be accused of being a beta tester."

Sinon examined the boy. He seemed…harder somehow. It was a subtle change, occurring over the course of a few months, but Kirito was different from when she had first met him. He still had that same confident air about him and was still prone to making comments just to rile her up, but there was something darker about his appearance. His eyes had lost some of the glint that they had once carried. He laughed less these days and when he did, it sounded a bit forced. And although he didn't seem to notice it, Kirito's eyes frequently darted towards the dark corners of the room, searching for signs of movement within the shadows. A pale silver sword hung on his back, the handle jutting over his right shoulder. Throughout the meeting, he occasionally clenched his right hand and reached for the hilt before stopping himself.

"What're my two favorite antisocial buddies up to?"

Sinon was suddenly pulled downwards as someone flung an arm over her shoulder. Her head ended up very close to Kirito's; his hair was actually tickling her nose. Hoping her face wasn't flushed, she pulled free and turned towards the man who had ambushed her while she was trying to have a conversation.

While Kirito had become rougher around the edges over the past few months, Klein had taken the opposite path to an extreme. He acted more cheerful than anyone else Sinon had met in «SLD». Appearance-wise, he hadn't changed much at all. His face might have been described as villainous if it weren't for the fact that he always seemed to wear a broad smile. As always, a bandana kept his red hair back in an unorganized mess of a style. A curved sword hung at his hip to complete the look that Kirito often described as "bandit-like."

"Still alive, Klein?" Kirito asked, wrestling free of Klein's headlock.

"Oy, stop asking me that. Are you trying to curse me or something?" Klein joked.

Once, that might have gotten a chuckle out of Kirito but now, the boy merely shrugged and answered, "I'd say being trapped in this place is enough of a curse for a lifetime."

"Oh come on. That's enough of that sort of talk out of you, young man," Klein said. "Leave the pessimism for the adults and try to make the most of things."

"Easy for you to say. The comedic relief hardly ever dies in horror flicks."

Argo interrupted the three of them with a grin. Joining her almost immediately was Asuna, who stretched her arms and murmured something about feeling tired.

"Ah! A-Asuna-san!? G-good work up there," Klein stammered. The poor man seemed to get tongue tied every time he encountered a girl. Sinon wondered what it meant that he never got flustered around her.

"Thank you," she replied politely, "Um—what was your name again?"

"Klein! Of «Fuurinkazan»!" he replied quickly, too quickly actually, as he rigidly snapped to attention. Argo chuckled at the sight and mentioned something about comedic relief again.

"Sinonon," Asuna said, ignoring Klein's performance. "Your job, along with the rest of the ranged, this time this time is going to be extremely important."

"I know," Sinon answered, rolling her right shoulder. The strap that held the Hecate to her back tugged back, reassuring her that her partner was still there.

"Everyone ready?" Asuna called out, turning towards where the majority of the players had gathered. When she was satisfied with the number of affirmative answers, she gave the command to move out.

-o-

The entrance leading to the boss's chamber in this district was the creepiest one yet. The entirety of its surface was carved with lifelike eyes. In the gloom of the hallway leading to the heavy stone door, dimly lit by flickering torches, the eyes seemed to shift about and move, staring at everyone at the same time. There were dark trails running down the door; the corners of the carved eyes were wet with some substance which dripped down to the ground where it soaked into the porous stone. Sinon hoped that it was just water and not, as she suspected, blood.

Two players decked out in plate armor, both from the «DDA», pushed open the doors to the room. Stone rumbled as it ground against the floor to reveal the cavernous depths of the chamber. The players stepped inside cautiously, unconsciously making as little noise as they could. It was a futile attempt; the sound of rattling plate and clinking chainmail armor reverberated loudly off the walls.

The players had no sooner spread out in a semi-circle, with the tanks closest to the center, before flames sprang up around the room; sickly green lights that started at the far end of the circular chamber and wrapped around until they reached the door the players had just entered through. These, like the flames for any other boss fight, were not attached to torches or any other fixed structure, but hovered in the air, bobbing up and down gently while bathing everything in a pallid glow.

The frontliners looked about nervously for signs of the boss. From past experience, it could appear from anywhere: the ground, the ceiling, the walls, the far end of the room…all were fair game. They didn't have long to wait.

With the faint rumble of earth breaking open, a massive hand shot up from the center of the room. It clawed at its surroundings briefly before slamming into the ground, using this leverage to push the rest of the monster out of the ground. It emerged screaming, an incoherent shout that shook clods of dirt free from its curly brown hair. The hulking humanoid form was clothed only in a pleated skirt made of white cloth with gold trim, bronze greaves, and sandals. A leather overlay on top of the skirt provided some additional protection. The boss struggled to its feet, raising itself to a height of at least 6 meters, still facing away from the players. Although the monster's skin was torn and peeled away in many spots, there were no apparent weak points; no flesh rotted away to reveal a pulsating organ or dripping wound.

The boss stomped the ground once, shaking the room around the player's heads before stretching its arms out to the side. A golden shield suddenly materialized over its left arm and a simple bronze-tipped spear half again the monster's height appeared in the boss's right hand. It hefted the equipment with ease, swinging the spear through the air experimentally.

The boss finally seemed to take notice of the crowd behind it and turned with deliberate slowness. Only its left eye was open, but it glowed like the sun, brighter than the flames that danced along the edge of the room. Opening its mouth again, it roared, bellowing its challenge to those around it. Specks of spittle flew from its mouth and through openings in its cheeks where the flesh had entirely rotted away. A name finally appeared over its head.

«Argus of the Hundred-Eyes»

Next to Sinon, Argo gave an amused snort at the similarities between their names. «The Rat» drew several throwing needles from within the folds of her cloak. This time around, she would be ranged support, owing to what the boss's abilities were. Sinon hefted her gun and took aim, slowing her breathing and calming herself with her mantra. _Cold as ice…_

The melee moved in at once, the tanks forming a barricade between the boss and the ranged units. They bore the brunt of the giant's first attack, a wide horizontal sweep with its spear, before moving aside for the Strikers to move in.

Kirito was the first amongst them to reach the boss. He darted between its legs, avoiding a stomp, and neatly hamstrung the boss with a well-placed «Slant». Of course, the boss didn't collapse to one knee, but the first of its four health bars moved downwards slightly. First blood had been drawn.

Sinon forced her vision away from the melee and looked for a weak-point to exploit. The only one that she could find was the left eye. Kayaba Akihiko seemed to have universally designated the eyes of a monster as a weak area. It made sense, and it was a tricky shot to place since bosses were surprisingly fast and the target was small.

In moments, the only thing within Sinon's vision was Argus's face. Her vision tunneled in further until the only thing she acknowledged was that golden eye. It moved about as the boss flailed at the players engaging it, but Sinon kept it in view at all times. She slowly squeezed the trigger…

The boss roared in pain as a .50 caliber bullet pierced it right through the center of its eye. A tunnel outlined by a red wireframe followed the path of Sinon's projectile to the back of its head where the bullet had exited. The empty space filled up a moment later, but Sinon still felt the satisfaction resulting from a perfectly placed shot. «Argus» turned its attention to Sinon and charged, barreling past the line of heavy armor players as if they weren't there. Sinon calmly stood her ground and reloaded.

The boss swiped its spear downwards, intending to crush Sinon with the weight of the haft. The weapon was deflected to the side well before it connected, knocked aside by a heavy blow from the axe-wielder who had assessed the situation and then come to Sinon's aid. Just as she had guessed he would do. She nodded at him silently in acknowledgement.

"You're welcome," Agil grunted as the recovery time of his «Sword Skill» ran down. He brought his axe back for another swing.

The boss glared down at the dark-skinned giant in annoyance. Not through the eye that Sinon had pierced earlier, but with a gray one that had opened in its left shoulder. Suddenly, the reason for the epithet «of the Hundred Eyes» became clear. Agil paused mid-swing, suddenly hit by a paralyzing effect.

"Oh come on," he protested. "How is this even fair?"

Sinon ducked to the side as the boss reared back to attack Agil. She was too close to get a clear shot at the eye that had opened and she didn't want to get caught in an area of effect attack directed at Agil. He would take much less damage than she would from a direct hit since he wore heavy armor.

Agil was saved when Argo dashed by and hurled a fistful of long needles into the monster's shoulder. The grey eye closed in reaction to the hit and Agil was freed from the debuff that had stricken him. This was the reason why Argo and anyone else who had taken any ranged weapon skill was designated a ranged support player for the fight. It was necessary in order to remove the random status effects the boss inflicted with its eyes.

"The toughest looking guy always gets the short end of the stick in the movies," Argo said as she retreated behind the shield wall to wait for the next time she would be needed.

"Oh thanks," Agil retorted. "That makes me feel _loads_ better about my chances."

Sinon ignored the exchange that went on and ran to the side, looking for a clear angle from which she could shoot again. Once she had found one to her liking, she paused and waited for her heartbeat to slow enough for an accurate shot. Contrary to the rumors that went around about her prowess and nerves of steel, being attacked, even if she knew the blow wouldn't connect, sped up her pulse which made it more difficult to shoot precisely. She just hid the fact that it did.

Sinon lost track of the time as she fell into a pattern. Shoot once, move, reload, and shoot again; a pattern that she would have to ingrain in the men she was now in charge of training once they finished learning formation tactics. The boss targeted her several times during the fight, but was thwarted by the solid teamwork of the defensive line. Although the tanks came from many different guilds, they had worked together before and knew what to do. Somehow, she doubted the Heavy Armor Division run by the «ALF» would be nearly as good.

She was moving to another spot when her legs froze in place. A thick coat of ice had formed over her boots, rooting her to the ground. Luckily, she had been backpedaling which meant that she was still facing the boss.

An ice-blue eye had opened at the center of «Argus»'s chest and was locked straight on Sinon. The boss bellowed loudly and charged at her, thundering footsteps echoing off the chamber walls. There weren't any ranged weapons users near Sinon who had a clear shot.

Sinon let out a deep breath before reloading and shouldering the Hecate. Her heart beat once, causing the targeting circle to expand. _Calm down_, she told herself, _you _are_ ice itself_. Time seemed to slow as the targeting circle tightened, centering on the blue orb which was fixated on her. She pulled the trigger, feeling the slight resistance of metal on her finger before the recoil punched her hard in the shoulder. The boss roared as the bullet struck home, but it had too much forward momentum to be stopped by a single shot.

The ice around Sinon's feet shattered as soon as the giant closed the eye on its chest. She rolled to the side, just barely avoiding being trampled by the boss's feet as it stumbled by, slowed slightly after taking a round in the chest.

Before Sinon could recover from dodging, «Argus» swept its spear around in a wide arc. The «Sword Skill», «Lunatic Edge», was a pole-arm skill which traced a complete circle around the user. Sinon hadn't counted on the boss being able to use it, nor could she have predicted that it would be able to unleash a skill from that position; her eyes widened as she considered her options. Her mind seemed to be working more slowly than usual. She couldn't think of anything.

The deadly blade traced a red arc in the air as it spun about, sweeping in at neck level. Sinon brought her gun to the side, wielding it like a staff to try to block the hit. It was a useless gesture and she knew it. In the best-case scenario, she would survive but the move would greatly depreciate the durability of the Hecate. Still, her survival instincts screamed that she had to avoid taking the full brunt of this hit. Sinon closed her eyes and braced for the impact.

It never came. Instead, the sound of metal striking metal rang aloud. Sinon opened her eyes cautiously. Kirito stood before her and Asuna in front of him. _When had they gotten there?_ Asuna looked back at the boy with a puzzled expression. Apparently she hadn't noticed him stepping in to Sinon's aid either. Asuna's rapier slanted upwards while Kirito had aimed his blade diagonally towards the floor. The two swords crossed about six centimeters above their guards, forming a sideways "V" which had caught the shaft of «Argus»'s spear.

A sharp sound effect cut through the air as Kirito continued the activation of a «Sword Skill». The first stroke of his blade pushed the spear upwards so that it passed over their heads. Kirito stepped forwards as the second strike activated, cutting a gash along the left leg of the boss. He side-stepped the boss's attempt at a shield slam and delivered another punishing blow to «Argus»'s flank. Finally, with a pirouetting step that looked more like he was dancing than fighting, he cut the boss's torso, ending the four-strike sequence that formed the «Vertical Square» skill.

Asuna muttered, "Kirito-kun's being too reckless…again."

She charged ahead and diverted the boss's «Linear» with one of her own. Kirito barely gave the spear a passing glance as it passed over his right shoulder, grazing his cheek and leaving a thin red gash. He did not seem surprised at all; it was as if he had expected Asuna to back him up despite how no words had passed between the two of them.

Sinon reloaded and took aim at the eye that had opened on the back of the boss's shield hand. This one glowed bright red and was directed towards a tank standing far behind Sinon. He screamed as he burst into flames, his hp dropping at a steady rate. The man dropped his sword and shield to the ground and rolled about as if it might put out the flames. Before Sinon could take the shot, someone else hit the crimson eye.

"Wow, first time I've been able to beat you to it when going for the same target," Argo remarked cheerfully. She didn't seem tired at all despite the length of the fight.

"I couldn't get a guaranteed hit that time," Sinon explained. "Almost getting killed seems to adversely affect my ability to focus."

She fired another round, hitting the boss in its left eye yet again.

Argo blinked in surprise. "That was pretty close to an actual joke," she exclaimed. "We'll need to work on it a bit, but I think you'll make an excellent tsukkomi one day."

«Argus» shook the walls of the room again with an enraged bellow. He swung wildly in Kirito and Asuna's direction, forcing the two to separate as they leapt out of the way. The boss turned its attention to Asuna and brought his spear back over his shoulder.

Asuna jumped backwards and out of range, but it turned out that she had not needed to. The guild leader of the «KoB», Heathcliff met the attack with his shield. Furthermore, he had angled his barrier in such a way that the spear slid off the surface and continued charging forwards without slowing down. Heathcliff's shield glowed briefly as he sent it into his foe's torso, knocking the boss slightly off balance. The warrior followed this up by stabbing his sword deep into «Argus»'s stomach and then ripping the blade out by slashing to the side. It was a brutal maneuver, but undeniably effective.

The recovery time on Heathcliff's «Sword Skill» was short. Short enough for him to recover and block the next attack from the boss. The leader of the «KoB» fought almost mechanically, his expression never once changing from that calm and appraising look that told everyone he had the situation under control. Sinon supposed that, as the only known player to have a «Unique Skill», he had a right to the confidence with which he carried himself.

As usual when Heathcliff fought at the front, the rest of the tanks stayed back. It was an unspoken law amongst them to never get in the way of the «KoB» guild master. The man blocked another vicious stab with his shield, the wind from the impact sending his gray ponytail fluttering. Asuna and Kirito flanked the boss and began to unleash a barrage of attacks, dyeing the boss's leg red with wireframes indicating damage wherever they struck.

Sinon reloaded, sending an empty cartridge clinking to the ground as she placed another bullet into the chamber of her gun. The boss was down to the last half of its final health bar. Barring any new surprises, the fight would be over soon…

-o-

The boss cried out in primal fury one final time, tossing its head back and howling at the ceiling before shattering into a billion prismatic shards which quickly dissipated into the air.

Sinon let out the air in her lungs and slumped forwards, using the Hecate to support some of her weight. All around her, players were dropping down to the floor, sitting down to rest off the exhaustion that had built up over the course of a 2 hour fight. One by one, the pale green flames around the room snuffed themselves out, leaving everyone in darkness.

They sat in silence for about ten minutes, many of the players unwilling to move about in the dark. The lack of distractions gave Sinon enough time to think about her situation.

There wasn't much she could do about Kibaou. He was a part of «The Army» whether she wanted him to be or not. All she could do was her best job in training the Ranged Division as a way of paying her debt to Thinker off. When that was finished, she could leave the guild and return to her solitary lifestyle with a clear conscience. Whatever happened to them afterwards was none of her concern.

She wasn't looking forward to breaking them in to the realities of a boss battle. They had enthusiasm, but were hopelessly ignorant of the demands of a district clearing. The visceral fear that permeated the air, the constantly changing environment, fighting to maintain control…it seemed like an impossible task to teach them everything they needed to know.

The room burst into light, causing Sinon to quickly shield her eyes. The time it took for a district become "reclaimed" after the demise of its guardian varied, but the process was always jarring. The chamber around them had transformed without their knowledge.

Tall mirrors with gilded frames hung at regular intervals on the wall. The floor was now made of marble, polished to the extent that it was nearly as reflective as the mirrors. A massive chandelier hung at the ceiling, refracting the light streaming from a hundred candles through thousands of crystals that dangled under its golden frame. Many of the clearers took this as a signal to head on back to their homes or their guild headquarters and got up with a groan.

The sound of heavy footsteps on the floor announced that someone was approaching her. The confident gait, slow and deliberate, told her exactly who was coming.

"Do you need something, Heathcliff?" she asked, shouldering her rifle without looking back.

"I'd like for you to deliver a message to Thinker," he said. It was a politely worded request, but behind the veil of courtesy, it was implied that this was a demand that Sinon was not allowed to refuse. "Tell him I've received his proposal and that the «KoB» will honor his request."

"Will do," Sinon replied. Asuna and Kirito had just left the room together; the two seemed to be arguing about something. Argo followed the two of them, but left enough distance that she would be able to claim she wasn't eavesdropping. From the broad grin on «The Rat»'s face, it was clear that she was listening in. "Is there anything else?"

"That will be all," Heathcliff replied. "Thank you for your time, Sinon-kun."

Sinon jogged outside, following behind her friends. She still had many tasks ahead of her, but for now, she would deliver Heathcliff's message and then take a break. The 23rd district had been cleared.

* * *

*notes: Another long chapter. After a bit of re-reading the LNs, I realized that the colors worn by «The Army» are gray and a dark-green. I'll edit the previous chapter a little to reflect this. I'm working towards developing the rivalries within the guild a little more. More guild politics to come eventually.

The boss fight this time around is more filler than anything else. I used it to experiment with a more descriptive fight scene. Let me know if there are any complaints about the style; feedback is always appreciated. Of course, the fight also let me use a few characters who might not have gotten screentime otherwise. Klein finally gets to show up again, but he doesn't get much to do here, sorry.

Anyone wondering about what Argo was doing in the background this chapter? If so, good. Since the arc is mostly from Sinon's perspective, you won't find out unless/until she does. But Argo is involved in something that will become very important in a future arc.

Alright, enough comments for now, I suppose. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter.


	7. Chapter 7: Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 7: Pride and Prejudice

Sinon faced off against a muscular man, the two locked in an undeclared staring contest. Neither gave an inch and although they were both technically on the same side, their mutual enmity was clear.

The leader of the Armored Division was a stern-faced man named Corvatz; he was the sort who obeyed the chain of command to the letter. Which made Sinon's place outside of the ranks unusually inconvenient for him. She was an anomaly, someone who neither gave nor received orders from him. That reason by itself may have been enough for him to set himself against her.

Based on how poorly their conversation was going, Corvatz was either taking out his confusion on her or he had orders from above to make life as difficult as possible for her. Either way, Sinon was becoming less and less fond of the man and his lack of an indoor voice with each passing moment.

"Look little girl, I don't care what you think you need to train that pathetic lot. My men need to focus on their own training and that means that they don't have the luxury of wasting time babysitting you ranged weaklings out in the field."

Sinon glanced over at the "training" Corvatz was putting his men through. They were doing some form of drills, lined up in three neat rows and executing the «Vertical» skill over and over in sync. It was an exercise that made the troops look highly disciplined and organized. It was also completely useless if the goal was to prepare them for the frontlines. No matter how many times they use a «Sword Skill», without actual targets, they would never level their skill up. "Babysitting the Ranged Division," as he put it, would have done more for these men than what the Lieutenant-Colonel was putting them through.

"Look, I've told you several times already that your men will benefit a lot from going into the field with us," Sinon argued, feeling like she was talking to a brick wall. "They'll get combat experience. _Real _combat experience, as opposed to this half-baked idea of training you're putting them through _and_ they'll learn how to fight alongside the Ranged Division and be better prepared for when we're in a boss fight."

Corvatz bristled at her words, "Are you implying that _I_ don't know what's best for my own men!?"

Sinon wanted nothing more than to say, "That's exactly what I'm saying." But as much as it irked her, she _needed_ those men in order to go about her training exercises more efficiently. Well, if logic wouldn't work—

"I've already said that I have permission," she stated. "Thinker—"

"—doesn't have the final say in what goes on in the Melee Divisions."

A new voice cut into Sinon's argument. She could feel her skin crawling as she turned about to face Kibaou. He was an unwelcome enough sight already, but to compound matters, the spiky-haired man had an unpleasant sneer on his face as he approached.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Sinon asked with undisguised contempt.

"Are you sure that's how you want to address the leader of this guild?" Kibaou responded. He placed a hand on the hilt of his weapon as if he were going to draw it.

_What an unlikeable ass._

Sinon retorted, "You're not the leader of this guild."

"Of course I am. You see, _girl,_ there are two types of people in this world. There are those like Thinker who are, for lack of a better term, thinkers. They may have big ideas and grand ideals, but they never get anything useful done. Thinker is busy with what he does best, managing the paperwork, and wisely leaves the actual running of the guild to his betters." Kibaou's smile managed to combine arrogance, condescension, and dismissal as he added, "Corvatz-san and I are _doers_. _We_ get things done around here. Not that excuse for a guild master. So yes, I _am_ the leader of this guild. You'd better remember that, 'Beater-chan.'"

Sinon wished she could turn off the «Anti-Criminal Code» just for a brief moment. A few seconds would be enough to wring that man's neck. Of course, the only man who would be capable of changing the system code in that way was the madman who had trapped them all here in the first place.

Because staying around Kibaou would serve no purpose other than torturing herself, Sinon forced herself to turn about and walk out the door without a word. Anything was better than standing near that self-important moron. She felt the urge to take a bath; it was as if the man had tainted the very air around him.

But Sinon was still left with the problem of lacking melee players to work with the Ranged Division. She spent some time thinking about what she could do. Ask one of the people on her friends list, perhaps? The more she thought about it, the less she thought that idea would work.

Asuna was probably busy running the «KoB». Even if she had the time, it wasn't likely that she would be able to spare anyone from that hard-core clearing guild to help. Klein wouldn't work for similar reasons; although Sinon had no doubt he'd be happy to help, she also knew he was busy getting the members of «Fuurinkazan» prepared for the front.

Kirito, maybe? Almost as soon as his name entered Sinon's head, she dismissed the idea. The thought was laughable. He was more reclusive than Sinon had been even before joining «The Army». Even if he was willing to help, Sinon wouldn't be able to count on him to leave anything alive for her own men to shoot at.

Argo? Sinon could just picture the grin on the information dealer's face if she learned that Sinon was having trouble with this matter. She'd probably say something along the lines of "just use your feminine charms to convince Kibaou's men to abandon him." Even if they communicated through private messages rather than face to face, «The Rat» would somehow find a way to leave no room for doubt that she was having the time of her life at Sinon's expense. Nope, Argo was _definitely_ out of the question.

That left…Silica. Immediately, Sinon told herself that that was _not_ going to happen. Oh, the girl would probably jump at the opportunity to help her senpai out, she had no doubt about that. And the younger girl might have befriended some tanks, which would be useful. But Sinon also knew that if she mentioned going to the frontlines, it would be impossible to keep Silica from begging to go as well. Plus, Sinon wasn't sure how distracted the Ranged Division might get trying to show off for her adorable little kohai. Best not chance that.

Sinon sighed. Why was it so difficult to get anything done around here? There were over 5000 players in this guild. It should not be this hard to find some bodies to form a defensive line. She could still have the Ranged Division practice skirmisher tactics, but at this point, she felt that they've had enough practice moving around on the battlefield. The only thing they hadn't picked up was how to fight in conjunction with the melee.

It looked like she was down to her final, and least effective, option. Equip the troops with bayonets and have half of them fight at melee distance while the rest fought from the rear. It wouldn't be pretty. None of the Ranged Division, to her knowledge, had any experience using «Sword Skills».

_Why am I getting so worked up over this? It's not like I really care what happens one way or another. Once my debt is repaid, I'm out of here. _Sinon nodded as she made sense of her feelings. The only reason this problem was bothering her so much was because she didn't want to do a shoddy job. Being careful and efficient was what kept her alive when she was alone; she was merely applying those principles here. It wasn't as if she actually cared about anyone in «The Army».

But she couldn't stop the thoughts from cluttering her mind. They spun about in her brain, jumbling together in a confusing trail that ran in circles. In order to clear her head, she decided to go down to the shooting range; it was lunchtime and the room would be empty. Perfect for her mood.

She set up a total of five targets in the room, placing them such that many of them were partially concealed by the crates, barrels, and tables the division used to elevate what they were shooting at. Satisfied with the relative difficulty of the shots, Sinon walked over to the other end of the room, as far as she could go, and took aim.

The first bottle went up in an explosion of prismatic dust.

Sinon reloaded, taking a deep breath as she did. She imagined Kibaou's sneering face in the place of her next target…

The second bottle followed the first into oblivion.

As she shot, she found that contrary to her assumption, she was getting more and more irked at what was going on within the guild. She had come here to let loose, but her inability to _do_ anything worthwhile bothered her. Wasting time here only confirmed that thought. Sinon absolutely _**hated**_ feeling helpless while events unfolded around her.

Her hands trembled slightly as she fired her last shot, causing her to miss. Sinon blinked. She hadn't missed a stationary target in a long time.

"So this is where you were."

Yulier was watching Sinon's performance from the door. She had arrived silently a little while ago. Sinon noted that in addition to the whip that hung in a coil at her side, she now had a holster for a gun; the woman had said that it didn't feel right being in charge of the Ranged Division without actually owning a ranged weapon. She walked over to the younger girl now, looking contemplative.

"I don't think I've ever seen you miss before," she noted, glancing at the final bottle.

Sinon made a noise halfway between a grunt and a growl. "It happens from time to time," she replied simply.

She reloaded and fired again. This time, the bottle shattered, leaving her with no targets to distract herself with. No excuse to ignore the woman who was waiting for her attention.

"Well?" Sinon asked. "I'm assuming you have something important to say. Seeing you waste time frivolously is just as unusual as me missing."

The older woman shook her head sadly and sighed. "Professional as always," she said. "You're a teen. You shouldn't be like this; not all time. It's not—right. Don't you ever miss it? Being with friends and sharing a laugh? Or just taking a break to have fun?"

Sinon wouldn't know, considering she had been as much of an outcast at her school in real life as she was here. But that wasn't any of Yulier's business and Sinon wasn't willing to disclose this to her. Instead, she replied, "Fine words coming from the one who tried to guilt me into this job to begin with."

Yulier grimaced. "You've got me there. But you're also right about me needing to find something out from you. Will the Ranged Division be ready for the 24th district boss fight?"

Sinon thought about that for a while. They were ready, mostly. She had no complaints about their progress and they worked well with one another. Few of them repeated the same mistake twice and all of them had learned that when Sinon was giving someone a flat stare, it meant they were doing something wrong, stupid, or just plain dangerous. Usually all three at once.

"I'd be happier if I could get them in the field with some melee," Sinon replied. "But they should be good to go. They've been working on getting their «Skill» levels up so that they unlock a couple of useful passive abilities. The nice thing about ranged weaponry is that so much of the damage we do with guns is based on the weapon itself. I can't imagine how long it'd take if they had to learn the timing for using «Sword Skills» as well. Speaking of which, have you been able to fill that order for better weapons for the group yet?"

To her surprise, the silver-haired woman shook her head. Yulier was usually so good about getting things done that Sinon took for granted that this request would have been fulfilled.

"The guild's getting low on resources for making new equipment," she answered. "And the melee divisions have all the craftsmen tied up in making and repairing their gear." She scowled, showing a displeasure with Kibaou's group that she avoided displaying in public. "Not to mention Thinker's been getting swamped with _more_ requests from them. Maybe you could check with suppliers outside of the guild? Although, I don't think the «ALF» will be able to help you much with paying for the equipment because the budget is rather tight right now."

"That won't be a problem," Sinon replied smugly. "The division actually has the entire week's worth of training drops from our field sessions stashed away. I didn't register any of our earnings with the guild because honestly, I don't trust anyone here."

Yulier stared at Sinon incredulously for a moment, her jaw working as she tried to speak. "Y-you…," she stammered. "It seems like every other time I talk with you, I end up wanting to praise you and slap you at the same time."

Sinon merely nodded in agreement with the woman's comment. At first, Yulier had tried to act solely as Sinon's superior officer within the guild. Of course, that was doomed to failure as Sinon had no rank in the guild. When that didn't work, the older woman tried to fill a spot as a mother-figure. That didn't work too well either. Now, Yulier acted more akin to an elder sister, overbearing when she felt the need to be so, but also kind and with a listening ear. Sinon found the arrangement unusual, but it wasn't as stifling as the other options had been, so she let it be.

Yulier rubbed her temples and sighed, "But I can't fault you for not trusting us, I suppose. We're not exactly making the best impression either, with Kibaou being part of your 'welcoming committee.' So—how much were you talking about when you said you didn't register the earnings?"

Sinon counted off on her fingers as she tried to calculate the value of the items. "I'm not entirely sure what the market is like right now," she replied, "but about 750,000 «Col» sounds about right."

Sinon paused to enjoy Yulier's dumbfounded expression, although she kept her amusement masked by her usual impassive face. 750,000 «Col» was substantial sum. Enough to equip a full party of 6 with the best armaments currently available, reinforce those weapons a few times, and still have some money left over for buying armor. Or enough to fully equip a group of two dozen with passable weapons for a boss encounter.

"H-how did you?" Yulier exclaimed. "That's over two month's worth of savings!"

"Two months if you're only going into the field and sewers once every few days and don't know the best spots," Sinon answered. "Neither of which apply in the case of the Ranged Division."

Having an information broker as a friend (even if it only earned Sinon a small discount) had come in handy.

"Alright," Yulier nodded, recovering her composure quickly. "You can take care of securing supplies for the men since you have the resources stashed away; just pretend not to know if anyone asks about how we got the equipment. I'll take care of bringing the troops into the field today. Also, I hear the «KoB» is sending Asuna over later to finalize the terms we've discussed with them with regards to clearing the districts. You'll have to greet her in my place; I'm sure she'd appreciate a familiar face."

There was an awkward silence as Sinon stared at the older woman.

"What is it?" Yulier asked. "Do I have something on my face?"

"No…it's nothing," Sinon replied. "It's just that I've always thought of you as a stickler for rules. I never thought you'd just let things slide this easily. Rather than letting things slide, this is on the level of being a co-conspirator, isn't it?"

"I know when to make exceptions," the Ranged Division leader answered, clearly taken aback by Sinon's impression of her. "And increasing the chance my subordinates have of surviving falls into that category. Not to mention I'm ticked off enough by Kibaou's posturing that—"

She paused, as if just realizing she had almost publicly decried a fellow division leader. Sinon couldn't help grinning. It was the slightest of movements, barely a twitch at the corner of her mouth, but enough that Yulier noticed.

"I knew it," Sinon exclaimed, feeling oddly happy. "You don't like that windbag either! Not just professionally, but personally!"

"I don't," the older woman admitted. "But that doesn't mean that I won't work with him if it's in the guild's best interests."

"It's in the guild's best interests to harbor a witch-hunt inciting psycho?" Sinon asked incredulously.

To the girl's surprise, Yulier giggled. "He's not quite _that_ bad. Grating, loud, thick-headed, obnoxious, arrogant, doesn't listen to reason, power-hungry…"

She paused for a moment, her silver hair swaying gently as she tilted her head to the side and considered what she had just listed.

Sinon raised an eyebrow in her direction. "Want me to add a few more adjectives to that list?"

The older woman paused, giving Sinon a long, considering look.

"You actually have a pretty smile," she said finally, changing the subject to something she found less awkward. "You should do it more often. It might also swell the ranks of your fan-club."

Sinon patted her cheeks. To her surprise, she found that the corners of her mouth were turned upwards. Not too much, but enough that it was unmistakably a smile. Sinon couldn't remember the last time she had smiled unconsciously since the death game started.

"I smile all the time," Sinon answered, changing back to her usual, neutral expression. "I just don't let people see." She felt at her mouth just to make sure. "Wait…what did you mean by 'fan-club?'"

Yulier smiled in amusement. "Exactly what it sounds like. Why would you be surprised? A cute girl who is also one of the toughest players in the game? One who represents chaos that goes against the order the guild is supposed to stand for…something new, mysterious, and intriguing? You draw attention."

"Just what I need," Sinon muttered. "Painting yet another target on myself."

Yulier patted her head encouragingly, "You're a strong girl, I'm sure you can handle it. Now, that's enough time wasted chatting, I think. We should get to work."

* * *

Sinon hadn't realized how much she had missed just wandering through the winding streets of the reclaimed districts over the past week or so. All of her troubles faded, carried away by the streams of faceless players walking down the street around her. She breathed in the air; although the scents were generated by the Nerve Gear, the wind still carried the calming fragrance of Spring.

Despite wanting to take her time, she quickly made her way over to the 20th district where the only shop owner she had regular contact with did business from a dingy stall. Agil could have afforded a large store by now, but he claimed that he was saving up for "the perfect one" to buy.

As was usually the case, business seemed slow at his place. The few customers who weren't scared off by the man's brutish looks found out that just because a man looked physically intimidating didn't mean he lacked the intelligence to outthink them at the bargaining table. His shop was no place for a casual browser. As such, the majority of customers Agil received nowadays were his regulars; people who knew what they wanted and how much they were willing to pay or receive during the transaction.

So she had a pretty smile? Sinon decided to test Yulier's claim on Agil; maybe she'd get a better deal on the weapons she needed.

"I'll be with you in a moment." The dark-skinned giant placed down a crate of new goods and turned to face her. As he did so, the store owner's standard cheerful shopkeeper smile he gave every customer morphed into a look of complete horror. Agil stumbled backwards a step, grabbing the battleaxe he had propped against the back, and brandished it at Sinon.

"What manner of undead abomination are you, how did you get into a safe area, and what did you do to the _real_ Sinon-kun?" he demanded.

Sinon favored him with a stony stare. Agil stiffened up before relaxing noticeably. He set his weapon off to the side, the heavy metal blade clanking on the stone floor.

"You almost gave me a heart attack," he exclaimed. "I thought the world was ending..."

"Stop being melodramatic," Sinon replied. "I need your help."

"Welcome to my shop," Agil greeted after a moment of silence, trying hard to pretend that nothing had happened. "What can I get for you?"

Sinon sighed. _Men and their pride…they'd do anything to salvage it_. "Guns…" she answered. "Lots of guns."

That brought a grin to the man's face. Like the rest of the players who were regulars at the boss planning meetings, Agil knew by now that Sinon was training members of «The Army». No doubt he was thinking of the hefty profits he could make as their sole supplier.

"I'll see what I can do," Agil replied. "How many people do you need to equip and how much do you have to work with?"

Sinon casually opened a menu with a wave of her hand and initiated a trade with Agil. The man's eyes widened as Sinon filled the window with the item drops the division had earned over the course of the week. "I'll need enough for two dozen players," Sinon said. "A few of us have personal weapons, but it never hurts to have spares. Let's see…15 guns and a dozen bows would be good."

"Do you need armor for them as well?" Agil asked, as he looked through his stock and added items to the list one by one. Sinon looked over the weapons' stats; they all looked about right for a player level of the mid 20's.

"No, they have decent light armor already. We might need to upgrade after a few more districts, but the best defense of a ranged fighter is to not get hit in the first place," Sinon answered.

She wasn't lying about avoiding taking hits. The Ranged Division was getting very good at strategic retreats; without any tanks to hold back the undead, they spent just as much time getting away from large crowds of «Creepers» as they did shooting. It might seem laughable, especially for a spectator, but the #1 rule Sinon was beating into the heads of everyone she worked with was: Stay alive. All other concerns on the battlefield, whether it was dealing damage or protecting one's allies, was considered secondary. Sinon had gotten a few grumbles when she stated outright that the only excusable reason for putting oneself in excessive danger was to save an ally. Not so much for the statement itself, but because she had implied that even _that_ excuse was a flimsy one.

"Well then, I think this is a fair trade," Agil said as he waited for Sinon to confirm the trade. She looked over the materials and nodded before pressing the accept button. The shopkeeper added, "Is there anything else you're looking for?"

"Nothing really," Sinon replied. Then, her curiosity getting the better of her, she nodded towards the crates Agil had been moving, "What's in those?"

"Oh, those?" Agil asked. "Just a batch of dyes. You know, for customizing your hair-color and the like. Nothing you'd be interested in, I think."

Sinon nodded slowly, not taking her eyes off of the stack of boxes.

-o-

"You're 7 minutes late," Asuna chided as Sinon approached the entrance to the «Black Iron Castle».

Sinon checked the time, craning her head to see the clock on the nearby clock tower rather than opening a menu. Sure enough, Asuna's accusation was unerringly precise. It was 3:37. It seemed that the one whom Sinon was meeting now was not Asuna the friend, but Asuna the «KoB» officer. The two were so different in personality that even Sinon, who was familiar with the concept of public masks, had been taken aback the first time she encountered Asuna's no-nonsense persona.

Arguing that she had been out picking up equipment would not lead anywhere. This Asuna would not accept excuses. Not from others, but also not from herself. She saw only effort and results; nothing else mattered. Rather than waste her breath, Sinon pushed open the massive door and let the girl in white enter first.

Asuna's eyes seemed to take in everything as they walked down the corridors leading to Thinker's office. She would nod favorably at organized parties of players marching in time and purse her lips disapprovingly whenever they encountered someone rushing down the hallway without paying attention to those around them. When Sinon questioned her on this, she merely replied that organization and discipline was to be commended and that rushing was a sign of the inability to plan ahead.

After a few minutes of silence, Sinon decided to ask Asuna about something that had been on her mind for a while now. As one of the leaders of her guild, the older girl should have good advice on how to handle the situation Sinon currently found herself in.

"What would I do if I didn't get along with another of the officers?" Asuna mused. "Talk things through with them, I think. We do get into disagreements now and then, but the other officers and I all have the «KoB»'s best interests in mind."

"I wish I could say the same about things over here," Sinon muttered. "What about if there's no way you can work things out with them at all?"

"Then you just try to avoid them whenever you can and keep any required interaction to a professional level," she replied. "Better that than causing unnecessary drama."

Sinon scoffed. It was hard to imagine Kibaou acting professional about anything. As for the first bit, Sinon had been avoiding him as much as possible; the problem was that she would have to see him frequently when they were setting up for the boss battle. On top of that, the man seemed to be ordering his subordinates to keep an eye on her. More than once, Sinon had to tell off a Striker Division member for tailing her.

"I'll try to keep that in mind," Sinon said. "It's probably not going to happen, but I'll keep it in mind. Well…we're here. I'll wait for you outside. Do you have some time afterwards? There's something else that I've been meaning to talk with you about."

Asuna hesitated for a moment and then replied, "Sure. I don't need to return to the headquarters until later in the evening."

Sinon opened the door for her friend before stepping to the side. Knowing how long these talks could last, Sinon made herself as comfortable as possible. She leaned on the wall and closed her eyes, taking the time to enjoy the breather she had from her usual activities. At this time of the day, the Ranged Division was usually fleeing from a horde of undead or trying to bottleneck them in an alleyway. Well, that was Yulier's problem to handle today.

Sinon amused herself by toying with how hearing worked in the game. By focusing on one noise, it was possible to completely ignore all other sounds in the background. Informally known as «Distinguish», it wasn't a skill that existed within the registry, but rather, was an exploit of the game's limitations. It was invaluable in the field as a means to scout for enemies that were out of sight.

She couldn't hear through the door to Thinker's office, or any other fully closed door since she didn't have the «Listening» skill, but she was able to pick out noises from a fair distance. Most of these were scattered conversations and the sound of boots striking the stone floor. Since she had nothing better to do while waiting for Asuna to conclude her business, Sinon found herself focusing on the conversations in the hallway. Eavesdropping might not be the most polite of activities, but Sinon doubted anyone would be saying anything important out in the hall where anyone could overhear.

She heard a few complaints about patrolling, the occasional rowdy joke which made little sense to her, an argument about whose turn it was for kitchen duty, and a plethora of other mundane conversations. Sinon was just about to quit and spend some time checking over her gun when she caught a few words which immediately grabbed her attention.

"..that woman. What the hell was Thinker thinking? Putting someone like her in charge?"

The source of the voice, drenched in raw indignity and rage, belonged to none other than Kibaou. He sounded far away, but the volume at which he was speaking caused his words to carry through the hallways of the «Black Iron Castle». Either he didn't care who heard him and he wanted what he was saying to spread or he was actually dumb enough to criticize his co-workers in public. As much as Sinon wanted to believe the latter, the former was also possible; one didn't rise to become the second most powerful member of the largest guild without at least some semblance of intelligence. Sinon couldn't hear the response of whoever he was speaking with, but the leader of the Striker Division's reply was enough for her to guess what was going on.

"She's performing well? Don't give me that crap. You know just as well as I do that there's no way a pencil pusher like Yulier can be trusted to lead men into battle. First sign of trouble and she'll go running off, she will. And don't get me started on that damn Beater Thinker seems to think so well of."

Sinon suppressed the urge to hunt the man down and confront him. What was that saying about never hearing anything good about oneself when eavesdropping on others? There was another long pause as whoever Kibaou was speaking to responded.

"Ha! That's a good one…but you might be on to something there. The two of them are abnormally close for a subordinate and superior. Sleeping together…I like that. Alright, there's no harm to be done if I just happen to 'slip' and mention it during training. The rumors will spread like they always do and before that silver-haired witch knows what hit her; she'll be forced out in disgrace. Then someone competent and more…pliable, can take charge over there. That sounds like—"

"…non!"

Someone shook her shoulder gently.

Sinon's attention snapped back to her surroundings. One problem with using «Distinguish» was that it made it difficult to hear anything except what she was focusing on. It was the auditory equivalent of looking through the Hecate's scope.

"Huh? Asuna?" Sinon asked, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. "You're done already?"

"Yes, negotiations are complete," Asuna answered. "Are you alright? You have a scary expression."

"I'm fine," she replied. She added a little lie to cover up her behavior, "Just annoyed with myself for almost falling asleep in the hall waiting. Let's go"

As the two set off towards Sinon's quarters, she stopped by a mirror to check Asuna's claim. Her scowling face peered back at her, eyes narrowed dangerously. _What am I getting so worked up over? It's not like it matters to me what others think. And this doesn't even concern me. They were talking about Yulier._ Sinon forced her expression back to normal, spending more effort than she would have liked in doing so. By the time they reached the door to Sinon's room, she had all but managed to convince herself that nothing had broken her calm.

"So what did you want to talk about Sinonon?" Asuna asked as she leaned forwards, placing her elbows on her knees and cupping her face with her hands. Here, in the privacy of Sinon's small room, the «KoB» officer could relax and cease to act like an officer.

"A bit of a continuation of our conversation from before," Sinon replied. "I figured that since you're pretty much the one in charge of half of the «KoB»'s activities, you're the best person to talk to about how to motivate people."

"Alright, go ahead," Asuna said, waving a hand nonchalantly. "I'm listening."

Sinon spoke at length about her experience over the past week and a half. She told of the successes and the failures as objectively as she could before going into her concerns for the future. She found herself complaining loudly about how difficult the two melee divisions were making things. And as Sinon talked about the Ranged Division's progress, she noticed a smile forming on Asuna's face.

"What?" Sinon asked, arching an eyebrow.

"It just…good to see that you're enjoying being in a guild," Asuna answered, shifting her weight a little. "Before, you always looked like you would chew the head off of anyone who even tried to speak with you."

Sinon paused and leaned backwards slightly into a more relaxed pose. _She hadn't been _that_ bad, had she?_ She liked to think of her usual attitude as indifferent rather than aggressive. She was sure that she merely ignored the presence of anyone she didn't want to deal with until they gave up and left her alone.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about," Asuna said, prompting Sinon to blink in surprise. She hadn't realized that she was thinking out loud. "You've always had this aura around you that seemed to say that if someone kept pestering you, there would be consequences. Now it seems easier to approach you, somehow."

"That doesn't mean I'm enjoying being in a guild," Sinon answered. "These guys are frustrating as hell sometimes and half the time I get the feeling that someone is going to do something stupid and get himself killed. Then I'd have to explain to Thinker why someone's name got crossed out on the «Monument of Life». Which would be a pain."

"Do you really think that they're that unreliable?" Asuna asked softly.

Sinon hesitated before grudgingly admitting that they weren't. Truth be told, the Ranged Division was pretty much on the level, skill-wise, of the majority of the players at the frontlines. The only thing they haven't had experienced yet with was working in tandem with melee fighters.

Of course, there was also one final test the division would have to pass: Their first boss fight. A good number of players capable of fighting at the frontlines quit after their first boss battle because they couldn't handle the fear and uncertainty. It wasn't something Sinon would be able to prepare them for beyond giving them the skills to survive; the fight for the 24th district would make or break the division.

A small part of Sinon balked at leading them into a district boss fight. She knew they were about as ready as she could get them in the short amount of time they'd been together. But what if they messed up somehow? What if what she had done for them wasn't enough? What if someone got killed? With a start, Sinon realized that she _was_ starting to feel protective of the people of the division. She told herself that it was because she had promised Thinker that she'd see to their safety as best she could.

Of course, Asuna chose that precise moment to interrupt her thoughts by saying, "I think it's great that you're becoming more honest with yourself after joining a guild. I wish I could convince Kirito-kun…"

"What do you mean by more honest?!" Sinon exclaimed, more sharply than she had intended to since Asuna's statement was too close to her own thoughts. Then, after a brief pause, she added, "Wait…you've been arguing with Kirito about joining a guild again, haven't you?"

Asuna's expression hardened, giving away the answer to her question. Sinon sighed. Asuna was a good friend and usually had useful advice, but Sinon also felt that she pressed others too hard when they had a different viewpoint than her. That unyieldingness might be required as a guild officer, but the older girl didn't seem to realize that it caused people outside her guild to avoid her almost as effectively as Sinon's coldness did.

"Look, Asuna," Sinon said. "I know you think that being a loner is wrong and that you have our best interests in mind. But Kirito and I are both 'people who are better off with minimal contact with others.' I can't speak for him, but for me, being a solo means I can push myself to my limits. It's _my_ way of proving to myself that I'm still alive. Just like how running your guild is yours. Don't push your perspective onto people you aren't in charge of, Asuna. Just because you think it's in our best interests to be in a guild doesn't change how you're trying to force your opinion on us."

Even in the face of this criticism, Asuna remained calm and listened, proving her character once again to Sinon. If Asuna had a reason to expect the best effort from others, it was because she drove herself twice as hard to correct her shortcomings as anyone else. Even so, there were some things she refused to change her mind about.

"As a whole, being a part of a guild is beneficial," she argued. "There isn't any logical reason not to join one."

"Maybe for the majority of players," Sinon admitted. "But for someone such as Kirito, guildmates would only slow him down. Not beneficial at all."

"But he'll have people to watch his back. What about yourself?" Asuna asked, giving her a flat stare. "I'm guessing you're trying to be humble by excluding yourself from that last statement, Sinonon?"

Sinon considered her friend's words. Her leveling pace had slowed dramatically after joining «The Army». Her earnings per day were also lower once it had been split amongst the division; that in itself meant it would take longer to buy new equipment and upgrade it. In short, her overall fighting power had been negatively impacted since joining. She told Asuna what she was thinking.

"I don't expect you to understand, Sinonon. Not yet at least," Asuna replied. "But as a group, your performance overall is greater than that of each individual added together. You can't look at just yourself and use that as proof that being in a guild 'isn't right for you.'"

"Why not? There's nothing wrong with only looking out for your own interests," Sinon shot back. "This isn't real life, Asuna! The only thing that matters here is surviving until the game is cleared. And in order to do that, the best way is to make sure that you have the strength to stay ahead of the curve. Just look at the types of people who are calling on others to be more selfless, more charitable. _They're_ the ones who immediately took to discriminating against so-called Beaters to begin with. _They_ want to be carried through, coddled while they huddle in safety as others risk their lives to clear the districts for them. I'm sick of their hypocrisy, Asuna… «Aincrad» isn't a place for altruism. It never was."

Sinon barely managed to keep her voice at the level just below what was considered a «Shout». It would have been awkward if her voice had carried through the closed door and into the hallway.

"That's not true. Even if the minority are like that, most people here are just trying to get by as best they can. They're good people." Asuna protested. "That's what I feel."

Sinon nodded, causing Asuna to look hopeful for a split second. "That _is_ just what you feel. So don't try to get me or Kirito thinking the way you do. Our experience with other players is far different from your own."

Asuna sat in silence for a while, contemplative. Then, softly, in a neutral tone, she probed Sinon. "You claim to be uninterested in others, but you're always talking about Kirito-kun like you're taking his feelings into consideration…"

Sinon looked up at the «KoB» officer in surprise. Was it possible that her friend thought she was…? Ridiculous.

"That's because he's someone 'similar to me.' And I guess there's a small portion of admiration for his strength as well. If it seems like I act differently when he's involved, it's because I still feel like I owe him something—and I pay off my debts."

An answer delivered with no hesitation. Sinon studied her friend carefully. Was that a hint of relief in the girl's eyes? Sinon decided that she couldn't tell.

"What about you?" Sinon asked, narrowing her eyes. "You're awfully insistent about getting him to join a guild. And the way you go out of your way to make sure he's at every boss planning session…suspicious."

She left the rest unsaid. If there was anything Sinon had learned from Argo, it was that hinting at something and letting the listener fill in the blanks was oftentimes more effective at teasing out information from others than asking them outright. A wry voice in her head added that it was usually more entertaining as well.

"Awawawah!"

In terms of the yield this time around, the result could only be considered a jackpot. Asuna immediately turned red and started denying any ulterior motives. She eventually stuttered something about "Kirito-kun giving her a reason to live" before realizing how her words could be interpreted. With a horrified expression on her face, she blurted out that it was well past time to return to headquarters and beat a hasty retreat out of Sinon's room. Sinon had been watching her friend's performance impassively the whole time.

"See you at the boss planning meeting," she called out as the door closed shut behind Asuna.

When she was certain her friend was gone, Sinon mused to herself, "So the stiff-backed «KoB» officer _can_ act like a girl her age sometimes."

* * *

"What the hell is this?" Sinon demanded.

Although she couldn't see the eyes of the man before her, owing to the helmet that covered the top half of his head, Sinon looked him in the "eye" with the same glare which would send the men under her command scurrying for cover. Although his facial expression never once changed, Sinon noted with satisfaction that his feet shuffled in agitation.

"Your orders, ma'am."

A statement delivered in the most matter-of-fact voice.

"I can see that," Sinon snapped irritably. "I'm talking about the nonsense written within these orders. 'As the Armored Division and the Striker Division are relegated to more important duties elsewhere today, the Ranged Division is hereby ordered to scout out the boss room and report their findings directly to the head-commander of the Striker Division by no later than 6 p.m.'"

There was absolutely no chance the orders came from Thinker. Judging from the pompous words, these instructions came from Kibaou. Sinon stalked off to find the culprit, fuming beneath her mask of ice. But once she found him inside his office…

"These _are_ Thinker's orders."

He vehemently denied her accusations.

"Bullshit," Sinon replied coldly. "Thinker's been to boss fights before. He knows the limitations of the player 'archetypes.' He'd never assent to sending only a bunch of lightly armored ranged fighters to gauge a boss fight."

"Regardless of your opinion," Kibaou said with a sneer, "those are your orders. The boss planning meeting is tomorrow so you'd best be on your way along with the rest of that useless lot, little girl."

"Screw you," Sinon replied. She turned around to leave, fully intending to ignore the missive she had been handed this morning.

"Oy! I'm not done talking with ya yet!"

Kibaou's grating voice called out from behind her. Sinon ignored him.

"I wasn't lying about these being Thinker's orders! _I_ was given the responsibility of deciding how to go about scouting the boss room from him directly. You ignore these orders and it'll reflect badly on him at the boss planning meeting."

Sinon paused in her tracks, turning around to face Kibaou again.

"Why would he give _you_ the reins in deciding how to scout the boss?" she asked.

"Because _I_ run the melee divisions," he answered arrogantly.

"Well then, you can cancel your so-called 'important activities' for your beloved divisions and have them check out the boss fight, melee division _Leader-sama,_" Sinon replied sarcastically. "Because I'm not letting you get any members of my division killed with your stupidity. I'm sure your little lapdogs can take a day off from their vital duties and do something useful for a change since the last I heard, the most important job of the Striker Division was to procure the cheap hair-gel you use to maintain that ridiculous hairstyle of yours."

"You damned brat!" Kibaou's smirk distorted in rage. "Don't you dare push my patience any further! I can make life a living hell for ya. I _will_ have my way. If you won't cooperate, then I'll just have to take drastic measures. Worried that your worthless friends in the Ranged Division won't be able to survive? I'll kick them all out of the guild and get em all blacklisted! We'll see how long they can survive in this world if no one'll even be willing to stay in the same room as one of them!"

It seemed that the man was unused to not getting his way. He reminded Sinon of a child throwing a tantrum. If it wasn't for his ability to go through with his threat, the situation would have been laughable.

"You'll make _my_ life a living hell?" Sinon retorted. "I, who have fought alone in this hell for half a year while you lazed about plotting your schemes? Don't delude yourself any more than you already have. As for your threat, do you really believe that Thinker will be willing to overlook your behavior? Sending people out on a suicide mission and trying to coerce them when they won't obey?"

Although she put on this show of defiance, Sinon felt a chill. While she knew that he couldn't do anything to _her_ without resorting to a criminal act, the other members of the Ranged Division were not so lucky.

"What Thinker is willing to overlook does not matter!" Kibaou sneered. "Both he and Yulier are away on business and won't be back until too late in the evening. And by that time, the damage will be done and irreparable. So choose! Will you still ignore these orders, knowing that it will cause Thinker to be discredited? Or will you scout out the boss?"

His confident smirk seemed to add that Sinon really had no choice in the matter at all. It didn't stop her from spitting on the floor by his foot before turning to go. Ironically, the unerring sniper missed and hit him right in the toe of his boot.

* * *

"Well, I don't see any other way out of this."

Sataki mumbled his displeasure at their choices as he leaned on the wall. He tried to busy himself with checking over his new gun, but his thoughts were obviously elsewhere. Everyone in the division was gathered nearby. They were having a group meeting after Sinon spread the word about what their orders from the top were.

"The way I see it, there are only three possible outcomes," he said. "The first is that we refuse the job and like Kibaou said, much as I hate to admit that he's correct, that path will cause Thinker to lose credibility with the other clearing guilds. The second is that we take the job and complete it perfectly. That'll prove that Kibaou's decision to send _us_ was correct and thus strengthen his position in the guild. Not to mention he'll probably try to take credit for all the actual work. And the third…"

He paused for a long while, contemplating the floor with a dire expression.

"The third option?"

"The third outcome…" Sataki answered slowly, "is we all get killed after accepting this mission. You could say that this result would be the best one from Kibaou's standpoint. Not only does it get us out of the way, but it'll be a blow to Thinker for supporting us. Not to mention he'd be able to milk sympathy points for the clearing groups within the guild that remain, namely his own."

With a roguish grin on his face, Raker replied, "Well, aren't you a bundle of cheer today?"

"This is a serious matter, boy. I suggest you keep the humor for when it's more appropriate."

The speaker was the most elderly man of the Ranged Division, Phileas; while asking one's age would be rude, it was easy to see that he was at least in his early 50's. Philea's hair was heavily infused with gray and he had a worn-out but reliable air about him. When questioned about what someone his age was doing playing a VRMMO, he shrugged and explained that he had wanted to see a new world. Phileas was a rare individual in this day and age, travelling to a place to take in the sights rather than to conduct business. During breaks, he would regale the division with tales about places in the real world he had visited. But he also had a sterner side to him, a no-nonsense attitude when there was work to be done that, coupled with his extensive travels, earned him the nickname of «Captain» in the division.

"Tch, spoilsport," Raker muttered. Nevertheless, he took the man's advice by adopting a more solemn expression. "So," he asked, "those are our only three choices? If that's the case, wouldn't the second option be the best?"

There were murmurs of agreement all around. Certainly their success would end up helping Kibaou, but it was a lot better than ruining Thinker's reputation (and helping Kibaou anyways.) And after Sinon's training, "Stay Alive" had practically become the division motto; the third potential outcome was unthinkable for them.

"Pretty much. I think that as much as we'd all like to just sit here and say 'screw you' to Kibaou, we're not going to do that, so let's figure out how we're going to stay alive without any tanks on the frontlines," Sataki declared. "Besides, I have a wife waiting for me at home. I'd never be able to face her if I just said I hid while others cleared the game for me."

That prompted a sharp intake of breath from Raker. "Man, you've got guts, tripping a death flag like that…"

"I don't intend to die," Sataki remarked dryly, ignoring the younger man's attempts to lighten the mood. "It never hurts to think on what you're fighting for. Of course, without tanks, this isn't going to be fun at all."

"I've got that covered," Sinon replied, walking into the room. She had left after informing the rest of the division of their task to see if anyone in the guild might be able to get in contact with either Thinker or Yulier. "I sent a message to the Asuna of the «KoB» requesting that she lend a few of their shield-bearers to us for the day. We'll meet up with them at the boss door."

"So it's decided that we're going, then?" Raker asked, clearly excited.

Sinon nodded. Nervous energy filled the room, the same sort that often permeated the air right before class began on a day when there was a major test. Well, from a certain perspective, this was a test as well. A test where failure meant certain death. It was a good sign that no one was openly panicking.

Once everyone finished checking over their equipment and made sure they had enough potions, they marched out of the guild headquarters in double file. Unlike the melee divisions, the Ranged Division had no set uniform. No two members of the division wore the same armor. Also unlike the melee divisions, none of them cared about marching in time so their parade was a disorderly looking one. Several of men from the Striker Division, who apparently had time off from their "important duties" paused to jeer at them as they strolled past.

The trip to the boss gate within the 24th district was a short one after they took the portal to the closest district. The Ranged Division was only momentarily delayed when Raker stopped to flirt with a young woman about his age as they were passing through the 23rd district. Rolling his eyes, Sataki dragged the younger man off by the collar; the teenage boy protesting loudly that he still hadn't gotten the girl's name.

-o-

"I thought you were going to lend us a few of your guys," Sinon said, hiding her surprise at seeing what appeared to be the majority of «Aincrad»'s strongest guild waiting for them by the door to the boss's lair.

"I don't believe I ever mentioned the number of people I would authorize sending," Asuna replied. "The number of people who volunteered to come to your aid merely exceeded expectations."

3 dozen members of the «KoB» grinned at their officer's announcement. Sinon recognized all of them from boss fights in earlier districts. But the one who stood apart from the rest of them, clad in red armor trimmed in white rather than the reverse, drew her attention. Why was the leader of the «KoB» here himself? This was only a probing mission, not something he should be involved in at all.

"We take care of our own," Heathcliff said simply. With a nod towards Sinon's group, "Especially those who are newcomers to the front. There aren't enough battle-tested players that we can afford to lose any potentials due to poor decisions. More importantly Sinon-kun, does the design on the boss door not look familiar?"

Sinon examined the stone door. Carved pillars ran up and down the height of the structure, giving off the impression that this was the entrance to an important government building. Shadows danced in an out from behind the pillars, adding an ominous presence to an otherwise ordinary looking door. It was an effect that was only achievable in a virtual world. Although some details were different, the impression the door sent out triggered Sinon's memory.

"The twelfth district…" she said quietly.

Heathcliff nodded. "That was the same feeling I had as well. That battle went especially poorly, as I recall."

11 players killed during a one hour fight, all within the first fifteen minutes before the clearers finally learned how to deal with the threat. While it wasn't the record-holder for the number of casualties during a single boss fight, the 12th district taught them a harsh lesson about entering a boss fight without knowledge of the fight mechanics beforehand. It was after that district that the practice of probing a boss with scouting parties was put into place.

The boss of the 12th district had low defense and low attacking power. It seemed that every one of its stats had been minimized in order to bring its speed to insane levels. But no matter how fast a monster was, if it didn't have powerful attacks, it shouldn't have been considered a threat. What made the 12th district boss an absolute nightmare was its method of killing. But just because the door was similar in design…

"But just because the door is similar doesn't mean that the boss will be," Sinon argued to Heathcliff. "I doubt Kayaba would be unimaginative enough to use the same exact fight for two districts."

Heathcliff seemed amused, or at least that was what Sinon sensed from the man. "That is true. But all the same, might it not be best to let your men know of the 12th district fight as a precaution? Once the boss is engaged, it will be too late to wish you had."

He was right. Survival was mostly about how prepared one was for an encounter.

"Ranged Division, form up," Sinon ordered.

Despite how soft her voice was, the members of «The Army» immediately reacted to her orders. Sinon was amazed that they had heard her at all, considering how absorbed they had been with fanboying over the members of the «KoB» moments earlier. The members of the division formed a rough semi-circle around her, waiting for her to begin speaking.

"Alright, this is it," she began. "If you want to back out now, I suggest you do so now. Once you step past that door, you will be expected to stand with the rest of us no matter what happens. Any takers for my generous offer?"

There were a few chuckles but as expected, none of the players made a move to leave.

"Heathcliff-san believes, and I agree, that this fight may be similar in nature to one that we've already been through. That is, the fight for the 12th district," Sinon said as she looked each of the men in the eyes. "The mechanics are simple. Try not to get grabbed, but if you do, hitting the main body of the boss, the hands and arms don't count, will cause the boss to release you. If you aren't able to or none of the rest of us manage to hit the boss within a few seconds, all I can say is the following: I hope you secretly have an «Extra Skill» that gives you a parachute."

What Sinon was talking about was the reason the 12th district fight had been terrifying. The boss would speed around the room, ducking behind cover to avoid detection and snatch an unwary player. If the boss's grip wasn't broken, it would then climb up to the ceiling and hurl the unfortunate raider to the ground, instantly killing him. No amount of armor could mitigate fall damage. The expressions on the faces of the Ranged Division grew grim as she explained the countermeasures they had adopted too late to save the lives of almost a dozen players.

"With that said," she concluded, "this boss fight might be very different from the 12th district one, so be on your guard. Do not get overconfident."

Heathcliff and Asuna opened the doors leading to the boss's lair and Sinon's group followed the «KoB» members inside, taking their places in the center of the outwards facing circle the melee players formed. Their eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness around them, too slowly to see anything until the hitodama that floated about appeared.

"Nervous?" Sinon asked, feeling a slight tremor next to her.

"Hardly," Raker replied, grinning. "This feeling, like I have a thousand volts coursing through my body…is this what you clearers feel every time you step into a boss fight?"

A few of the «KoB» members chuckled knowingly, but most remained silent. While Raker's reaction was the most common amongst newcomers to the front, not all the members of the Ranged Division were of the same mind as him.

"I wish I could say the same as you," Phileas groaned. "You young'uns are crazy if you're getting an adrenaline high off of this. Me…I'm starting to feel my age. One of you youngsters go fetch me a kotatsu, a nice soft cushion, and some tea, would you?"

A sickly green flame appeared in the air on the far side of the chamber.

"Quiet!" Asuna ordered, "It's coming."

The room suddenly burst into light. Although the intensity was far below what it had been outside, it was still roughly the equivalent of what it would be right before sunset on a typical day. For people whose eyes had just barely adjusted to near complete darkness, it was blinding. Another small cruelty Kayaba Akihiko had piled on top of everything else. The members of the «Knights of Blood» were used to this by now and braced themselves properly, but the members of the «ALF» were momentarily stunned.

The room was a large circular chamber with a forest of pillars at the edge. The center of the room was clear of obstructions, far more spacious and open than Sinon had expected.

A loud screeching filled the air and the boss came into view, scuttling to the center of the room from behind a pillar. Sinon blinked once in surprise; it could have been the twin of the 12th district boss.

Long, lithe limbs jutted out from its torso like the legs of a spider. But no spider had legs that ended in clawed hands and human feet like this monster did. The beast walked on all fours, its stomach facing the ceiling. Unlike the 12th district boss, this one had bony armor plating that covered portions of its body; Sinon took note of that. There was the possibility that hitting an armored spot wouldn't cause the boss to drop a grabbed player. An all too human head twisted about, craning in a way that would have snapped its neck if this were reality, and grinned sinisterly at the players. It let loose another ear-piercing shriek and disappeared behind a pillar.

"Everyone, stay together," Asuna commanded. "We're moving to the center of the room. Keep away from the walls and pillars to avoid surprise attacks."

They followed her orders, moving swiftly towards the middle of the chamber. The Ranged Division looked around nervously, jumping when the flickering flames caused the shadows behind a pillar to move erratically. The more experienced «KoB» kept trained eyes on the ceiling and pillars as they moved.

The boss struck before the tanks could fully reform their line and encircle the more vulnerable ranged players. Darting in from behind, it reached out and grabbed one of the Ranged Division by the leg, dragging him off screaming. Sinon spun around quickly and managed to get a shot off, striking the boss in the face and causing the monster to drop its prey. She was pleased to hear three other gunshots following her own a few moments later. It was a sign that some of her men were able to keep a level head and adjust quickly enough to avoid panicking.

The man who had been dragged off scrambled back behind the line of armored players as quickly as he could. His breathing was ragged and he looked shaken.

"Stay in the middle until you calm down," Sinon told him. "You won't be able to shoot accurately enough to be any help until you do."

He nodded, looking grateful, and did as she said. Sinon reloaded her gun quickly and took aim again. Strangely enough, the boss hadn't disappeared from sight again yet.

"Odd," she said to Asuna. "There's nothing that different about this fight compared to the one in the 12th district."

As if answering her concern, the boss gave an ear-piercing cry. Even the highly disciplined members of the «KoB» flinched at the sound and several of Sinon's men outright dropped their weapons to cover their ears. She would have to scold them about that later. Right now they had other concerns.

Like the army of undead that had just popped out of the ground. The raiders were surrounded on all sides.

"Spoke too soon," Sinon muttered. She pulled the trigger, obliterating a monster along with a second one that had been standing directly behind it.

"You know, I'm really glad these burly guys are between me and them right now," Raker said, making sure to place someone between himself and the new mobs. He patted the man on the back. "Keep up the good work, buddy old pal."

The tank, a tall muscular man with curly red hair named Godfree, grinned back at the young gunner. "Just be sure to repay the favor if I get grabbed by the boss."

The wave of new monsters crashed into the wall formed by the «KoB» members and broke upon them like water on rocks. So far as strength was concerned, the adds were no stronger than regular «Creepers» and were only dangerous due to their numbers. Had the Ranged Division been alone, their appearance would have spelled disaster. As things were now, the enemy numbers were almost meaningless before the unyielding might of «Aincrad»'s strongest guild.

The lesser monsters were unable to penetrate the defensive perimeter set up by the heavy armor players. Whenever the boss tried to grab a player, whether it was one of the «KoB» members stationed at the edge of the group or one of the lightly armored ranged fighters momentarily exposed when a tank switched out, Sinon's gunners would stop it almost as soon as it pounced. Within the cold emptiness that she wielded to enhance her ability on the battlefield, Sinon felt…almost proud of them.

"Sinon, if it's alright with you, I believe we should just finish this district fight today," Asuna called out. "We have the perfect raid setup for this battle and it'd be too much trouble to press back towards the entrance of the room through all these enemies."

Sinon nodded in agreement and informed the division of what they were going to do.

"Kibaou's gonna be pissed once he finds out we did this without him," Sataki remarked, grinning from ear to ear. "Not that that bastard doesn't deserve it."

* * *

The fight took twice as long as the 12th district fight to complete. The main reason was because the army of constantly respawning weak mobs shielded the boss from most of the raider's attacks. Moreover, the stronger fighters of the «KoB» were occupied with keeping the undead at bay, leaving the Ranged Division to deal the bulk of the damage to the boss during the fight. But the final result was more than satisfactory. The Ranged Division finally learned to fight alongside melee fighters and more importantly, no one had died despite many close calls where a player had almost been dragged out of sight.

While all boss fights were draining and players were generally exhausted by the end, the Ranged Division was so energized by their success that they exited the room into the reclaimed 24th district with almost as much liveliness as they had entered with. Their cheer was contagious and even many of the battle-hardened members of the «KoB» joined in. Despite being in different guilds, the closeness with which they worked over the past two hours and the inherent danger of the fight forged new friendships between the Ranged Division and the men who had acted as their shields.

"Hey Sinon!" Sataki exclaimed, "We're going out for drinks with the «KoB» guys once they go off duty, join us!"

Sinon gave him an exasperated look and replied, "Putting aside how you just asked a minor to join you guys at the tavern, I have to submit a report to the guild."

"Aw, don't be a spoilsport," Raker said, joining in the conversation and throwing an arm over Sinon's shoulder in a friendly manner. "It's not like the drinks are actually alcoholic."

Sinon removed his arm and turned to face him. "Aren't you below the drinking age?"

"I'm pretty sure Japanese laws don't apply to «Aincrad», ma'am."

Sinon rolled her eyes and turned around in response to a tap on her shoulder. Despite her refusal to join them, it wouldn't be good for morale if she barred them from going. They deserved a break after today.

"Are you certain you want to keep the district being cleared from the rest of your guild?" Asuna asked once she had Sinon's attention.

Earlier, Sinon had shocked almost everyone by requesting that they keep this a secret. Heathcliff had an unreadable expression and Asuna had a contemplative look about her, but everyone else stared at her as if she had sprouted horns. In the end, it had been settled by the «KoB» guild leader passing responsibility downwards to Asuna with a quiet "I'll let you handle it."

"Yes I am, why?"

Asuna pressed her lips together as she looked into Sinon's eyes. "I think I know what you're trying to do, but it's not worth it. Your standing within the guild is—"

"Not an issue here," Sinon interjected. "The main issue is that idiot in charge of the Striker Division, the one pulling the strings behind our Armored Division as well, needs to be removed from power. You know what he did today Asuna…Either he was trying to get us killed or he's incompetent enough to believe a bunch of lightly armored ranged players can scout out the tactics for a boss fight."

Asuna frowned, "Still, if he has the pull with the guild you seem to think he has, nothing good can come of this."

"Look, I'm asking you as a friend," Sinon said. "Don't spread the word that the district has been cleared. At least, not to «The Army». And I'd appreciate it if you let the other clearing guilds know as well; they're bound to notice that the district has been reclaimed. They won't listen to me, but a request from the «KoB» holds weight."

"Don't pull that 'I'm your friend' card so casually," Asuna snapped. "As your friend, I can't stand back and let you hurt yourself even if you think it won't."

Sinon sighed. Asuna was missing the point. "Look," she answered. "We're talking about a guy who _will_ get people killed with his overinflated sense of self-worth if he stays in a position of power. If you guys weren't here today, think about what would have happened. No one in the Ranged Division has been to a boss fight before today, Asuna. They would have panicked when that army of adds appeared if not earlier, without the support you guys offered. If wounding Kibaou's pride will save their lives in the future, I count it a small price to pay."

"Are you sure that's the real reason behind your request and not because you want to get back at him for today's orders?" Asuna stared at her, an unblinking gaze that seemed to pierce into the depths of Sinon's soul. After a minute, she nodded, satisfied and continued, "Fine, we'll go along with your request. I'll send word around to the other guilds as well."

"Thanks, Asuna."

Sinon turned around to leave, catching Asuna's parting words before she rounded a corner and the raid group faded out of sight.

"I hope you know what you're doing."

Sinon shook her head. "Me too," she muttered.

-o-

"You're safe!"

Sinon's vision immediately became obscured as someone pulled her in for a hug. She tried to protest, but it was difficult to get words out when her face was pressed into Yulier's chest. Thankfully, the older woman released her before she suffocated (or so Sinon thought to herself, breathing wasn't actually a necessity in «SLD» although the game still simulated breathing based on signals captured by the Nerve Gear.)

"Where are the others?" Yulier asked as she pulled back, looking beyond Sinon as if she expected to see them appear any second now.

"Out partying," Sinon answered simply. "I gave them the rest of the day off."

"Did anyone—"

Sinon shook her head, "No casualties, although there were a few very close calls. Kibaou's going to be livid. Not only did we complete his suicide mission, we didn't even have the decency to get ourselves killed doing it."

Yulier looked relieved but replied a little angrily, "Don't say that! It's not funny. I was so worried about you all. Thinker and I were out investigating some oddities with the supplies and budget…we didn't even find out where the division had been sent until we got back. Of course, Kibaou was ready with some excuse, but I've never seen Thinker that angry before. He was saying something about barring him from going to the boss planning meeting tomorrow."

"No!"

The Ranged Division commander was taken aback by the force of Sinon's objection.

Sheepishly, the girl coughed into a fist and elaborated. "Er, that is—he should be allowed to go."

Yulier's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Alright, out with it," she demanded. "What do you know that I don't right now? I know you're not _that_ forgiving of a person."

"If I told you, you'd be obligated to tell Thinker," Sinon answered, pushing past the silver-haired woman. "And that would ruin the fun."

"What did you mean by—Hey! Wait!"

"Just be sure to be at the boss planning meeting. It'll clear up then," Sinon promised. She mumbled an apology to Yulier as she left the older woman behind.

The headquarters, as usual, was a busy place. It was nearing dinnertime and guild members could be seen rushing to and fro in a last-ditch attempt to complete their tasks before the end of the day. Out of the corner of her eye, Sinon noted a group of Striker Division members lazing about. She quashed her annoyance before it got out of hand. It would be hard enough to face Kibaou without either gloating at the Ranged Division's success or letting something that might clue him in to what he was going to encounter tomorrow at the meeting.

Sinon went over the details she had written down one last time. Everything about the boss attack patterns and how it used the cover of its army of minions to slink about the battlefield almost unnoticed. When she was satisfied that nothing in the report would betray that the district had been cleared rather than scouted out, Sinon knocked on the door to Kibaou's office.

In the end, she managed to deliver her report without raising his suspicion, although part of the reason may have been because he was so overwhelmed reading over the boss fight mechanics that he didn't notice anything else. No doubt he was trying to determine the best way to use that information to further expand his support within the guild. Still, it was surprising that he didn't notice how much more courteous Sinon was now compared to this morning.

As she exited Kibaou's office, Sinon's mask slipped momentarily. No one was around to see the predatory grin on her face as she strolled down the hall. Vengeance was a dish best served cold. And nobody was as familiar with the cold as her. She _was_ ice.

* * *

"And that concludes what we've found in our scouting forays," Kibaou finished, looking about the room smugly. "Any questions? I'm certain I explained things perfectly as to what we're going to do during the fight to minimize losses, but if someone didn't follow, speak up."

His mocking tone left no doubt as to what he thought of anyone who didn't follow his explanation and directives. Yulier sighed and palmed her face, shaking her head. Since she was standing behind Thinker, the Striker Division leader didn't notice her.

Like most of the boss planning sessions so far, this one took place in a dimly lit room around a large, circular, wooden table. The leaders from all the guilds who actively participated were at the center while their subordinates gathered behind them. Players not affiliated with a clearing guild who still wished to participate stood at the outer edge. Incidentally, this was the first time Sinon was this close to the center table at one of these meetings. She stood in between Yulier and Covarts, behind Thinker and Kibaou.

Although the innermost circle was reserved for guild leaders only, Kibaou had forced his way to the fore at the start of the meeting, stating that he was the one who would be giving the details of the fight. Without waiting for acknowledgement or consent from the other leaders present, he took his place by Thinker's side and began to talk whether everyone was ready or not.

"Very detailed information indeed," Heathcliff noted with his usual impassive expression. "I assume that it took substantial effort to obtain it? It could not have been an easy task."

Kibaou swelled with pride. "It wasn't that hard. After all, the Striker and Armored Divisions are manned only by the best. If I might be so bold to say, they may even be a match for the Knights at this point."

Despite her control over her emotions, it was very difficult for Sinon to burst out laughing. As it was, she wasn't completely able to keep her mirth in check and her shoulders shook with suppressed laughter. Yulier must have misinterpreted it as anger because she placed a hand on Sinon's shoulder and whispered in a placating tone.

"Calm down, Sinon," she implored. "We'll talk with the other guilds in private later."

Still restraining her laughter, Sinon shook her head.

"So, this information comes courtesy of the efforts of the Armored and Striker Divisions of the «ALF»?" Heathcliff asked, raising an eyebrow. "What of the Ranged Division's involvement?"

"Psh, they contributed little of use. If everyone's ready, I'd like to get this boss fight underway," Kibaou answered, "Of course, my division will lead the way."

A soft voice cut into the silence that followed Kibaous's statement. Taking a step forwards so that she was standing next to her guild leader, Asuna spoke the words that Sinon had been waiting for.

"You seem to be under some misconception." Kibaou looked confused as Asuna continued with what she had to say. "The district has already been cleared. Your information, complete as it is, is of no use to anyone at this point."

"That is—"

Kibaou's protests were cut off as Asuna glared at him accusingly. "This meeting is simply to determine the truth behind why the Ranged Division of the «ALF» was saddled with the task of scouting the boss without any melee backup. My cohorts are of differing opinions as to the meaning behind your actions. I've heard every possibility from a clerical mistake due to the size of the guild to complete incompetence— all the way up to attempted mass murder. I hope for your sake that it was merely an oversight."

Kibaou worked his mouth wordlessly before turning towards Sinon with a murderous expression.

"You bitch! Y-you set me up on purpose!" He vented his rage without heeding the presence of the clearers from other guilds.

Sinon met his eyes impassively. Next to her, eyes wide open, Yulier was looking back and forth between Sinon and Kibaou in surprise. Thinker said nothing, but there was a distinct air of satisfaction that had surrounded him when Asuna had made her announcement.

"Don't try to shift the blame like a spoiled child," Asuna interrupted mercilessly.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop 10 degrees as the «KoB» officer continued. She was no longer looking at Kibaou with accusation in her eyes. In the first place, to accuse someone normally requires viewing them as a near equal. The expression she now wore was that of someone looking down at the most vile of trash, wondering what it was doing in the same room as herself.

"Keep a leash on your underlings," Kibaou replied scathingly to Heathcliff.

His impertinent tone did less to faze the «KoB» leader than any of attacks from the enemy during yesterday's fight. The only reaction Kibaou received was a slightly raised eyebrow and a calm retort of "I trust my subordinates to do what needs to be done."

"Speaking of trust," Asuna added, jumping on the word her superior used, "your actions do little to convince me that we should trust our pre-raid preparations to the «ALF». Even if the reason why you sent the Ranged Division out alone was an oversight—that carelessness shows that we cannot trust our lives and our battle plans to you."

Her words brought nods from many of the front-liners in the room. Kibaou noticed that he wasn't receiving the support from the masses he typically enjoyed and thankfully, decided to keep quiet for the rest of the gathering. The rest of the meeting went by quickly and adjourned soon after. It was decided that the «ALF» would still be in charge of presenting the preliminary analysis of the next district's boss fight, with the events of the previous district being accounted for as "an honest mistake."

Sinon's attempt to mask her delight slipped at the end of the meeting when Asuna gave Kibaou one pointed glare and cheerfully told Thinker that he should "keep a leash on his underlings." The frontliners, unused to seeing the calm, collected sniper expose any emotion at all, were completely shocked. Several of the ones closest to Sinon in proximity even started backing away nervously which only served to amuse her even more.

"Well," Sinon asked Yulier as they exited the room, "now you know why I was insistent on letting him come to the meeting, right?"

"You…" Yulier managed to squeeze out. She looked down for a moment and sighed. Then, she began to chuckle which eventually grew to melodious laughter. "Alright, I'll admit seeing his expression made my day—and my week—possibly even my month. But as the leader of the Ranged Division, I'm obligated to say that purposely setting up your guild-mate to fail is—"

Sinon eyed the older woman and remarked, "Your lecture would be so much more convincing if you weren't grinning from ear to ear right now."

Had either of the young women turned around, they might have been worried about the murderous expression that darkened the Striker Division leader's face at that moment. It did not go unnoticed by a few stragglers leaving the meeting-place, but they all ignored it, thinking to themselves that it was an internal matter of the «ALF» and none of their concern. At this point, none of them could have known just how wrong that train of thought was.

* * *

*Notes: Decided to change the rating to "M" since the language is starting to get a little coarser in places due to the drama within the guild. It's still not at the level I've personally seen in some guild chats, but then again… better safe than sorry.

This chapter took a lot longer to write than expected. Mostly because I've been and still am rather busy right now, but other reasons apply as well. Like being lazy over the weekends and catching up on some anime.

I glossed over the boss fight this time around. Not because I was trying to cut corners, but because after establishing that the Ranged Division would have been wiped out without the «KoB» helping, the details of the fight would not have been important with regards to the plot of this arc. I promise that the 25th district boss fight will be detailed enough to make up for it.


	8. Chapter 8: Judgment of the Goddess

Chapter 8: Judgment of the Goddess

"Nyahahahaha!"

Argo's loud laughter filled the café as Sinon finished telling her about what had happened during the meeting. Had there been any other customers, they probably would have complained to the management. Luckily, the shop was empty except for Sinon, Asuna, Argo, and Silica. It was a belated district clearing celebration amongst friends.

"Ah, haha. Ahaha… Ok, I think I've calmed down a bit," Argo breathed out, clutching her sides. "That was brilliant Sinon. I wish I could have gotten a look at his face."

"Serves him right for being mean to Senpai," Silica exclaimed, puffing out her cheeks.

"Oh? Getting angry for Sinonon's sake? You're sooo adorable!" Argo laughed, giving the young girl sitting next to her a tight hug and rubbing her cheek against Silica's.

The young girl struggled in vain to break free before giving up. She looked over at Sinon pleadingly, her eyes already beginning to well up with tears. Her expression, never doubting that her beloved senpai would come to her rescue, was cute enough that Sinon was tempted to let Argo continue for just a moment longer.

"Hey Argo, don't tease my kohai that much," Sinon said, causing Silica's eyes to light up in happiness. "She's not used to your unique personality yet."

«The Rat» grinned but complied, letting Silica go. The younger girl immediately wiggled about in her chair, with the end result being that she was now a few centimeters further away from Argo.

"Speaking of unique personalities, no Ki-bou today?" Argo asked, glancing at the door as if he might enter right at that moment. "I thought you invited him, Asuna-chan."

A loud clatter caused everyone to jump. The source of the noise was none other than Asuna, stabbing her fork down into her plate with such force that the «Immortal Object» tag appeared on the table. She angrily stuffed a bit of cake into her mouth, a vein throbbing at her temple.

"That idiotic Kirito-kun," the «KoB» officer complained loudly, chewing exaggeratedly while pointing the fork across the table at Argo. "Do you know how he answered when I sent him the invitation? 'Sorry, but I can't be bothered. After all, I have no right to celebrate the clearing of the 24th district since I didn't take part. In order to not get left behind again, I believe I need to work at improving my strength in the field. And so, I'll be in the 25th district if you need me for anything.'"

Sinon shrugged and remarked offhandedly, "Well, it _is_ a good time to quest and level up. Most people don't like being in «Creeper»-infested territory in the night. Not that it's all that much darker than the day, to be honest."

Asuna turned around and glared at Sinon as if she was responsible for Kirito's refusal to join them. "You two are insane," she declared. "Why you would even think that hunting alone at night is worth dealing with the anxiety and suspense is beyond me."

"You obviously don't get the point of the horror genre," Argo remarked with a quiet chuckle. "Not knowing what may be lurking around the next corner, taking each step forwards both hoping for an encounter and praying something won't appear out of the darkness before you…"

"Not you too?" Asuna groaned, clapping a hand to her forehead. "Am I the only one around here that's still sane?" Then, as if realizing something, she glanced at Silica apologetically. "Ah! I didn't mean you, Silica-chan."

"I was just kidding," Argo answered with a grin. Asuna made a point of ignoring her.

At the same exact moment, Silica protested, "Senpai is _not_ crazy! She's an amazing person who isn't afraid of anything!"

Her pouty expression was too much for Argo, who once again laughed with delight and threw her arm around the younger girl. Stroking Silica's light brown hair absently, she turned to Sinon and stated, "Aw, this girl is just too precious… I want to take her home with me!" The little girl let out a squeak of dismay and again struggled to free herself to no avail.

"Somehow, I don't think Sasha at the orphanage is going to like that very much," Sinon retorted.

The brown-haired woman in charge of the orphanage could be much more intimidating than her 20-something years and bookish appearance let on. Especially when the children under her supervision were involved.

"Well, she puts up with you bringing Silica-chan out into the field, right?" Argo asked. "I don't mind doing the same for her, letting her learn the tools of my trade."

"You mean making her your partner-in-crime?" Asuna interjected in exasperation. "I think Sinon is a better role model than you would be overall. Even considering her somewhat anti-social behavior."

Argo clapped a hand over her heart in mock pain. "Your words wound me," she laughed. Silica tried to use this opportunity to pull free, but success was elusive. "I'd be a perfectly good Onee-san for Silica-chan. You're interested right? In the exciting business that is gathering information from the front? I guarantee there won't be a boring moment. And I can work my schedule around the days that Sinonon takes you out so that you get more days away from the orphanage…"

The crafty information dealer knew exactly what bribe to use from her past conversations with Sinon. Sinon could almost see the cogs working in Silica's head. On the one hand, taking Argo's offer, if it wasn't just another one of her jokes, meant that she would have to deal with this unpredictable and mischievous senpai on a regular basis. But it would also mean more freedom. And Sinon knew for a fact that Silica _hated_ the days she was confined to the orphanage because of how boring they were. The young girl's pleas to Sasha to let her go out alone had been rejected. In the end, the caretaker just wasn't willing to let a child out into «Aincrad» without supervision.

"Um…er…that is—I don't mind but…" Silica began nervously. Which prompted Argo to cry out with joy and hug her even harder, interrupting the rest of her words.

Sinon sipped from her half-empty cup of tea as her kohai squealed. "You know that Silica's just using you to get outside of the orphanage on more days of the week," she remarked. "Give her time and she'll talk you into taking her out every day."

"Is that so?" Argo asked, giving Silica an appraising look. Then, with another burst of energy, the informant renewed her cuddling session. "You're even more perfect than I thought! Scheming like that is exactly what I was looking for!"

Asuna chastised Argo, "Stop that already, you're going to make the poor girl cry." Then, she added words that caused Silica to perk up, her eyes gleaming. "And you'd be a bad influence on her. I'll have to do something about that…maybe have her come along with the «KoB» so that I can make sure she grows up to be—well—not like you, Argo."

"Oh come on, I'm a perfect role model. Charming, brilliant, knowledgeable, affectionate," Argo counted off on her fingers. "Can't forget modest either."

"Right…" Asuna retorted skeptically, "I don't think the world is ready for a mini Argo-chan on top of the original."

Argo grinned. "Right. I guess that would fall under the purview of 'too much of a good thing.'"

Sinon sighed. Really, her friends were spoiling her kohai too much. She mentally reassessed the power of Silica's seeming ability to warp reality with her cuteness. Thankfully, the girl herself seemed blissfully unaware of her gift, but with a few days or weeks under Argo's tutelage…the world might very well be doomed.

By the evening's conclusion, Silica's future had been decided. Two days per week with each of the older girls and one day off as a break to spend at the orphanage. She had looked confused at first while negotiations were going on at the table, but Silica had quickly jumped at the prospect of all but leaving the orphanage behind. Of course, there was the matter of persuading Sasha, but Sinon doubted that would be an issue. After all, the «KoB» would be able to protect Silica almost as well as if she were inside a «Safe Area»; there was no question about how little danger she would be in if she were with them. As for going out with Argo…well, no doubt the crafty information dealer would find a way to convince the matron of the orphanage.

* * *

Corvatz stepped to the side as a goblet flew past his head and collided with the wall, splattering its contents on the floor. Some of the liquid seeped into the rug beneath his feet, dyeing it a dark reddish-brown. He moved away from it a bit, but made no move to clean up. The stain would disappear on its own in time once the drink's durability ticked down to zero.

"That damn bitch…"

Kibaou muttered dangerously as he paced back and forth in front of his desk. The «Striker Division» commander was rarely in a good mood these days. He had become reclusive ever since the boss planning meeting two days ago. Even the news that the upstart «Ranged Division» trainer was planning on leaving the guild soon barely raised his spirits.

"What the hell was with that brat from the «KoB»? 'Speaking of trust,' my ass. That fucking Beater set that up with the «KoB» and the other guilds!" Kibaou ranted. "And did anyone mention how she broke our agreement with the clearing guilds and solicited aid from outsiders? Do they ever talk about her insubordinate attitude and disdain for the rules of the guild? No! They're too busy worshipping the ground she walks on…Idiots!"

Corvatz, unable to find a good time to interrupt his colleague, stood there and waited for the man's tirade to end. It took at least another quarter of an hour before Kibaou finally turned his attention back to the person he had called in to his office.

Slightly out of breath, he asked, "You're still here, Corvatz?" Then, straightening himself up to look more dignified, he picked up the goblet he had thrown and set it back upon his desk.

"You mentioned that you wanted to plan out the detail for how we are to handle the 25th district," Corvatz replied.

"Right," Kibaou said, scratching his head as he thought. "There's no use getting the «Ranged Division» involved this time around. Even if we asked them to do something reasonable like scout, that arrogant little girl will just pass the work along to someone else."

"Then what will we do with them?"

Kibaou shook his head. "Just ignore them for now, they're not important," he answered. "But _we'll _be in charge of every detail of the boss fight this time around. Got that? If your men find the door to the boss's lair, you report it to me and no one else."

"What about informing Thinker?" Corvatz asked, clearly concerned about leaving the guild leader in the dark.

"You leave dealing with Thinker to me. He doesn't have any idea what's needed in order to clear districts anyway," Kibaou snapped, scowling at the mention of his rival's name. "The «Ranged Division» stole my— _our_ moment of glory. That last boss fight was supposed to be the «Melee Division»'s triumph as we take our rightful place as the saviors of the people…"

The «Striker Division» leader sat down in his chair, propping his legs up on his desk. He waved at the seat across from him, indicating that Corvatz should take it. With a quick nod, the bigger man accepted and sat down, the chair creaking under the weight of his armor.

"When I joined this guild, I did so for a reason," Kibaou continued. "You remember what it was, right?"

"Equality and safety for the populace," Corvatz answered, recalling the motto which had quickly vaulted Kibaou to a position of power in the guild.

"Damn right," Kibaou declared, gesturing wildly with one hand, "and these last few months have been a rousing success. But it's high time we were recognized for our efforts. It's well past time that we, the ones keeping order and distributing necessities, are given the respect we are due. What better way to do that than to come back with the boss's head mounted on a pike? The plan was perfect!"

Kibaou swung his legs off his desk and hammered a fist into the dark wood, causing the table to shake with the blow. The movement was so sudden that Corvatz almost tipped his chair over as he flinched away in shock.

"But that bitch had to go and ruin everything! Well—not this time. We're going to reclaim our honor and do this all on our own," Kibaou snarled. "After all, if those losers at the «Ranged Division» can do it, my own hand-picked men will be able to do it a thousand times better. Can I count on your support, Corvatz?"

"You know what my answer will be," the armored man answered. Erratic as Kibaou's behavior had become, he was still the leader figure within the guild that had a clear vision for the future.

Kibaou laughed, regaining some of the confidence that had eluded him these past few days. He brought out another cup from his desk and poured a drink for Corvatz. Even though alcohol had lost the ability to intoxicate inside of «SLD», the «Striker Division» leader would keep a bottle of wine about to entertain his guests as he felt that the drink added a sense of class to negotiations and visits.

"A toast then!" he declared. "To the future of the «Aincrad Liberation Force»!"

Corvatz raised his cup in response and repeated, "To the future."

* * *

Shortly after lunch on the second day following Kibaou's secretive meeting with Corvatz, two other members of the guild held their own private conversation.

"So you're really going to leave the guild…"

Yulier sat atop the stool in Sinon's room as she regarded the girl with a questioning look. The room still held the bare minimum furnishings it had when Sinon had first arrived. In all her time here, the girl had not even tried to make the place a "home" rather than just a place to stay. Sinon stared back at her without blinking.

"I've already fulfilled my promise to you and Thinker," she answered. "The «Ranged Division» is more than ready to take their place as frontliners. It's about time for me to return to my lifestyle as a solo again."

Yulier thought about the girl's words for a moment. True, Sinon had done everything they had asked for from her. In fact, she had worked harder than Yulier expected, given how against guild participation she had seemed at first. Although the initial agreement was that Sinon only had to work with the men for less than half the days of a week, she had taught them without fail on every day she had been a part of the guild. The end result was that the «Ranged Divison» was not only ready for boss battles, they had already been through one without any losses. From a contractual standpoint, it truly was the time for Sinon to depart.

Yulier shrugged. "If that's what you really want, I doubt you'll listen to any objections. But why not stay? The «Melee Divisions» aside, a lot of the people here look up to you. Especially the ones you've worked with these past few weeks."

Sinon shook her head wordlessly. Had this conversation happened even just a week ago, Yulier would have missed the slight hesitation in the girl's body language. As it was, the silver-haired woman was able to discern enough to tell owing to how closely they've worked together.

"I don't know what happened in the past or why you stubbornly think that being a part of something bigger than yourself isn't right for you," Yulier said softly. "I won't even pretend to try to understand since that'll be rude to you. But your time with the people in the «Ranged Division» —are you happier now or when you were alone at the front?"

"That's!—"

The startled expression on Sinon's face conveyed more emotion in one burst than Yulier had seen from the girl in the first few days of her time at the guild combined. Her look of surprise immediately gave way to a sulky glare.

"—completely unfair," Sinon finished quietly.

Yulier responded with a grin completely unbefitting of her position in the guild and said, "Of course it's unfair. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't think about it."

"Right—Well, don't hold your breath waiting for an answer."

The young sniper, under assault from an unexpected direction, tried to brush off Yulier's words and reestablish the cold mask she had designed for herself. Yulier met her eyes with a challenging stare.

"Tell me Sinon. Why do you insist on being alone when people are perfectly willing to support you? Do you think that a few numbers, your stats in this twisted game, are all there is to you?" Yulier asked. When no answer was forthcoming, she added, "Strength like that is an illusion. But the connections you made here are real."

She got up to leave, brushing off her pants.

"Just promise me you'll think on what I said. If you still want to leave the guild afterwards, I'll say no more."

With that, the commander of the «Ranged Division» shut the door behind her, leaving Sinon to her tumultuous thoughts. She smiled gently as she walked away. That girl had changed a lot over the past half month, even if she tried to hide it from herself. Still as stubborn as ever, still just as prone to using harsh words, still trying to maintain her distance from others, but she had changed. Thinker's guess as to what Sinon had needed from the guild had proven to be very close to the truth.

Speaking of which, Yulier had to report to him soon. They had to get started planning on how to handle the next boss battle so that what had happened in the 24th district didn't repeat itself. Stopping in front of the double doors leading to Thinker's office, she hesitated for a brief moment before knocking lightly.

"Are you busy?" she asked, poking her head in.

As usual, the guild leader was sitting behind his desk, a large pile of documents piled before him. At the sound of his subordinate's voice, he set down the paper he was perusing and spared her a tired smile.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you at the door," Thinker apologized. "Were you waiting long?"

Yulier shook her head before looking at the sheets on Thinker's desk. "You're pushing yourself too hard again," she chided.

Thinker looked abashed as he scratched his chin. "Ah, about that…" he laughed nervously. "You're all trying so hard to clear the game. It's the least I can do to make sure everything's running smoothly and everyone has the supplies they need. Looks like the budget is going to be rather tight again, but with the added income coming from the «Ranged Division»'s outings…" He clapped his hands together, "That's right! I almost forgot about this. Here…"

Yulier took the document he handed her and looked it over. It appeared to be a list of names.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Your success in the last district didn't go unnoticed," Thinker explained. "_That_—would be a list of new applicants for the «Ranged Division». Just give it a look over and let me know if you want to accept anyone."

"None."

"Pardon?" Thinker looked surprised at the quick, almost reflexive, answer from his subordinate.

Yulier elaborated as she set the paper back on top of Thinker's desk, "I'm not going to take anyone new."

"Well, since that's coming from you, I'll trust you have a well thought out reason or two," Thinker said as he set down his pen and gave Yulier his undivided attention. "May I hear them?"

Instead of answering right away, she sat down on the chair opposite him and began to shuffle through the paperwork. As she had suspected, much of the work was material that he could have relegated to others. She began to fill out the information on one sheet, setting it aside when all that was left for approval was the guild master's signature.

"It's a matter of trust," she said after a few moments of working. Picking up the next sheet on the pile, Yulier began to work on that as she spoke. "The «Ranged Division» works together well right now. They've begun to trust one another with their backs and know each other's strengths and weaknesses. Adding a stranger to that group would not only stir up the status quo needlessly, but it would also be unkind to the newcomer. After all, even if your superiors tell you that someone is a part of your team now doesn't really make that true. For now, it's better to leave things as is. Besides—"

Yulier trailed off, her thoughts turning to the young girl who had declared her intentions to leave the guild. How would she feel if she found out that more people had joined the group and needed training? The girl might claim she was a loner with every breath she took, but she also had a strong sense of responsibility. Sinon would probably complain about the scenario as she tore up her notice of resignation (figuratively speaking) before turning right back around and proceeding to whip the latecomers into shape with her distinctive and antagonistic style of tutelage.

"And here I was worrying that you two wouldn't get along," Thinker noted. Yulier looked up at him in surprise. _Had she said all that out loud?_ The guild leader had returned to work, but continued talking to her. "You seemed so against her joining early on that I was a bit concerned whether you two would be able to work together. I'm glad—really."

"Aah…um…" Yulier didn't really know how to respond to that. True, she had been somewhat opposed to Sinon joining originally, but that was out of concern of how much trouble the girl could have caused. That hadn't proven to be the case, so she had quickly changed her opinion on the matter.

In order to cover for the sudden lack of conversation between Thinker and herself, she turned her attention to the work that had accumulated on her guild leader's table and silently continued to assist him. She lost track of the time, only looking up once for a long moment at Thinker. She quickly looked back down once Thinker met her gaze with a questioning expression. The two worked in silence until they were interrupted in the mid-afternoon by loud and urgent pounding on Thinker's office door.

* * *

"Boom! Headshot!"

Raker's loud shot filled the room the division used for a shooting range as the bottle he had been taking aim at shattered. He immediately rounded on one of his friends in the group who was clapping sarcastically and trapped him in a headlock. The «Ranged Division» usually spent the early afternoon practicing in this controlled setting before heading out to the field. In reality, it was less about the practice and more about finding some time to unwind.

Today, they had already spent more time than usual here, owing to Sinon's pensive mood. Yulier's question weighed heavily upon her mind and try as she might, she couldn't think of a reason to leave other than "that's what I originally wanted." As for what she wanted now—it was more complicated. She still wanted to her independence, but weighed against the feeling of inclusiveness with the members of the division, it was hard to make a decision.

"You alright there, sergeant?"

Something cold pressed up against her cheek, causing her to flinch backwards.

"Gwah! What're you doing!" Sinon screamed.

"Hey, careful! You'll spill it."

Phileas was standing behind her with a bemused expression, one arm extended out near her face with a glass in his hand. Arching an eyebrow, Sinon accepted it and asked, "What is it?" She took a cautious sip and almost dropped it in surprise. The drink was sweet and had a bit of a fruity aroma to it; the burst of flavor was shocking.

Seeing her expression, the eldest member of the «Ranged Division» smiled warmly. "You looked pretty worn out. The chef recommended something sugary for a burst of energy. He also told me to tell you not to worry, all the sweetness in that drink comes from natural ingredients so you won't put on any weight as a result; or so he claims."

"If I don't put on any weight, it's because we're all still trapped inside a virtual world and food doesn't actually have calories here," Sinon retorted. "Besides, I'm not that fond of overly sweet things…" But the thought of the rotund chef who ran the kitchens and his continued insistence that she eat up in order to grow strong cheered her up a little.

Phileas studied her expression thoughtfully. "I know something's been troubling you. Care to tell an old man what it is?"

"It's none of your—"

"—business," he laughed. "I know. Just humor this old busybody who has nothing better to do, would you?" He sat down on the floor and stretched his legs out with a groan. "Guh, didn't think that this game could simulate getting the cramps…"

He looked at her expectantly, scratching at his beard. A few minutes passed by without Sinon speaking a word. When it became apparent she wasn't going to answer his request, Phileas eased down onto his back, placing his head atop his hands as if he were going to take a nap. Perhaps he was.

In a relaxed tone, he started talking, "Now, nothing I say means anything in particular. These are just the ramblings of a tired old man sorting through his thoughts before his afternoon nap. Call it the prerogative of age and senility catching up to me. You young'uns are better of running about and picking yourselves up if you make a mistake. Don't agonize over your decisions, act; you have people who'll look after you if it turns out you did something wrong. Friends, companions, guild mates…" He yawned dramatically before drifting off.

Sinon leaned over him and waved a hand in front of his face. A light snoring began to escape from his lips. Just to make sure, she gave him a light jab in the ribs. No response, it looked like he had actually managed to fall asleep that quickly.

Unsure as to what she should do in this case, Sinon joined the younger members of the «Ranged Division» at the shooting gallery. She didn't think any further on Yulier's question until much later. After all, it wasn't a decision she had to make immediately.

About half an hour after her conversation with Phileas, the doors to the room burst open. Yulier ran inside and, in between gasps for air, exclaimed:

"We've got trouble."

* * *

Thinker was in his office when Yulier and Sinon arrived. Across from him was someone Sinon didn't recognize; however, his dull-green heavy armor marked him as a member of the «Armored Division».

"Yulier, Sinon, good timing," Thinker greeted them. The cheerfulness of his greeting sounded forced. "I've just found out most of the details from Wedge-kun." Turning to face the young man standing before him, he waved a hand at the two members of the «Ranged Division». "If you would, please tell them what you told me."

The man from the «Armored Division», Wedge, gave Thinker a curt bow and turned to face them. Sinon didn't notice when he had been facing Thinker, owing to the cape that was a part of the man's uniform, but his armor was scarred and dented. His face still had traces of fear etched upon them and his words were quaky as he began to speak.

Yulier's expression seemed to darken with every passing moment. The woman kept clenching and unclenching her right hand as if she were itching to throttle someone, most likely Kibaou. Not that Sinon could blame her. At least two dozen men dead based on Wedge's report. Apparently, the «Striker Division» leader had saw fit to set off for the boss's lair without informing anyone else and had taken the entirety of both of the «Melee Divisions» along for the ride. Sinon hadn't really noticed their absence from the guild halls but in retrospect, it had been a lot quieter today than usual.

"That moron," Yulier muttered, all pretense of guild camaraderie with Kibaou tossed aside. "We need to get them out of there at once. Sinon, can you get the «Ranged Division» ready to head out while I send messages to the other guilds?"

"No."

The curt answer was clearly not what anyone had expected and all three other occupants of the room stared at her with their mouths wide open. Sinon met their gazes unblinkingly.

Yulier glared back at her. "We don't have time for your childish games," she said angrily. "There are people's lives at stake here."

"That's exactly why," Sinon replied. "I'm not going to let anyone I know die pointlessly to try to rescue some idiot who doesn't deserve to lead."

"Damn it, stop being ridiculous. Sinon, I've put up with your selfishness and I'd like to say I've been more than tolerant," the silver-haired commander shouted. "But there's more at stake here than just your pride. The other two divisions are triple the size of ours. Kibaou bringing everyone means that there are at least 150 people there right now and we don't know how long they can last."

Sinon sighed and shook her head. "That's not what I meant. Sure, I'd love nothing more than for that arrogant prick to get his comeuppance, but what I'm saying is we need to find out as much about the boss from Mr. Deserter here – good job abandoning your idiot boss and coming back here, by the way – so that we don't all end up trapped inside and needing a rescue effort ourselves."

Yulier's expression immediately softened. Unsure as to how to respond, she turned and met Thinker's gaze. He nodded slowly in his subordinate's direction before addressing Sinon. He stood up and began to manipulate a menu that had appeared in the air before him. His guild uniform, a green military outfit with a knee-length tail, materialized out of thin air. Thinker reflexively caught it immediately with his left hand.

"I'll get in contact with the other guilds," he said. "You and Yulier find out the details from Wedge-kun and begin planning around that. Let's make it our goal to get as many people out alive as we can."

"Is that really ok?" Sinon asked. "The other guilds will be doing their own things today. I'm sure most of them won't appreciate being dragged into our guild affairs, especially after what happened last district."

"I'll worry about that when the time comes!" Thinker declared, tossing on his dark green officer's uniform and heading for the door. "I don't care if I need to beg or bow or even dogeza, it's the job of the guild leader to find a way to help those underneath him."

The door shut behind him noisily, leaving Sinon and Yulier alone in the office with Wedge. They all stared after the guild master for a moment. At almost the exact same time, Yulier and Sinon voiced their opinion of the man who had just exited the room.

"—such an amazing leader."

"—such a shamelessly naïve individual."

The two young women exchanged challenging stares briefly before smiling knowingly at one another. In truth, they each agreed with the other's assessment of their guild leader but had only voiced one part of their thoughts out loud.

"Now then," Sinon said, addressing the man from the «Armored Division» with a look that had him backing up two steps away. "You're going to tell me everything you saw inside the boss chamber. And you'd better not leave out any details."

Yulier clapped a hand to her forehead. "This isn't supposed to be an interrogation…"

* * *

"Sorry, but we have no intention of coming to your aid."

The representative of the «Divine Dragon Alliance» spoke plainly as Yulier finished telling the front-liners gathered in the «Black Iron Castle» what they had learned from Wedge. There were a surprising number of people at the hastily called meeting, few of them familiar faces. A few of them nodded in agreement with the «DDA» spokesperson's statement. This meeting had been completely unplanned for and it showed. Most of the regular front-liners were out in the field or busy with other duties. That some clearing guilds were able to spare a force of second-string raiders today was a small miracle already.

"There are people's lives at stake here," Yulier stated, slapping a palm onto to table for emphasis.

"I am aware of that," the man replied. "But I'm not going to risk the lives of my own guildmates to save a group of strangers. I appreciate the information about the fight, but the fact of the matter is, in a lair of the size you described, it'll be easy to get lost and ambushed by the boss. Besides, it sounds like this Kibaou fellow brought this upon himself."

Sinon nodded in silent agreement. Asuna saw this and frowned in her direction before speaking up. "If it's just a rescue mission, the «KoB» will lend its strength to the «ALF». Unfortunately, many of our members are busy today so we won't be at full strength but what we have, we can offer."

There was no need to consult the «KoB» guild leader on the matter. Even had he been present, he probably would have passed the actual decision making down to his officers and sat down to observe the proceedings with a hawk-like gaze. As it was, Heathcliff was absent and none of the «KoB» members seemed to be able to get in contact with him. None of them were concerned about him though; according to members of his guild, "the Paladin" often disappeared into the deepest bowels of the sewers to train alone.

"Thank you," Thinker said, taking center stage. "I appreciate your aid greatly. As for those who are hesitant to help, I hope that you will find it in your hearts to come along today. I know our guilds may not have gotten along in the past and that we've had our share of problems, but all the same. Those are my men out there. In the preparatory time before we head out, I beg you all to reconsider."

Without any hint of uncertainness, the guild leader of «The Army» gave a low bow to everyone present. Yulier made a motion to stop him, then reconsidered and joined her guild master. Murmurs rose up from every corner of the room from people who had been on the fence about this task. But it seemed as if no one wanted to be the first to step up and offer.

"This doesn't look good."

Sinon turned around suddenly. Kirito was standing behind her with a hand under his chin as he studied the rest of the room's occupants with narrowed eyes. He had somehow managed to sneak up behind her with her noticing. She hated when he did that even if he wasn't consciously flaunting the fact that his «Hiding» skill greatly outleveled her own ability to detect it.

"What doesn't look good?" Sinon asked, fighting down her urge to tell Kirito off for creeping up behind her.

"If we don't get enough manpower in there, we'd have to stay in a single group for safety," Kirito explained. "That would make finding the lost members of your guild more difficult."

Sinon stared at him for a moment. "Right…and shouting and hoping they answer back would give away our position to the boss. Not a good idea this time around."

The boss fight this time around was completely different from anything the clearers had encountered previously. When Sinon had first heard that the fight was taking place in a massive area, she had pictured the boss's lair as maybe the same size as 2 or 3 blocks in the 1st district. As Wedge continued to describe the environs, she had come to understand that she was off by an order of magnitude. The boss chamber was at least as big as half of a district. The man from the «Armored Division» also claimed that the "room" was really some sort of underground town with a tangled network of narrow streets.

"The more time we waste here, the more people will end up dying," Kirito whispered. "And I don't think that your guild leader will be able to persuade the majority of the people here to help him altruistically."

"We can't do this without them though," Sinon replied in a hushed whisper.

Kirito nodded in agreement. "It doesn't look like Thinker is willing to go with only a token force either. He's smart enough to realize that this isn't something three dozen people will be able to handle. Wait a second—I thought you hated Kibaou's guts. I'm surprised you actually seem like you _want_ to go in."

Sinon glared at him, "I'm not doing this to save his ass. But letting a lot of people die just to get back at him is too much. Plus, this is a good way to pay back Thinker and leave the guild with a clear conscience...What's with that smirk? Don't you _dare _make a crack about whether I'm going soft. It's just that if I'm not there and Kibaou did us all a favor and bit the dust, I won't get the chance to put a bullet through his undead corpse."

Kirito grinned at her. "That's the Sinon I know," he said. "But that leaves the problem of getting these guys to go along…I don't suppose you have a plan?"

"No, but it sounds like you might…"

"Just one," he answered, shrugging as if this had nothing to do with him.

"A classic Kirito-style plan or one that actually isn't reckless and makes sense?" Sinon asked with just a hint of sarcasm.

"Well, it's a bit—Wait! You have a classification for the ideas I come up with?" Kirito asked incredulously.

Sinon shrugged, mimicking the swordsman's earlier gesture. "Sure. Asuna, Argo, and I came up with it. Any action that is reckless to the point of idiocy and has a neutral or even negative effect on the person implementing the plan while those around him benefit is categorized as «A Kirito-style Plan». In honor of your brilliant solution to the situation at the post-1st boss fight conflict along with a few other reliable rumors Argo heard about you. Pretty accurate description, don't you think?"

Kirito grumbled about how that was completely unfair but then gave her a sheepish grin. "Alright, you got me there. Do me a favor though—keep Asuna off my back about it for a while after I go through with this, alright?"

"What, worried about what she thinks of you?" Sinon asked innocently. For a brief moment, she considered telling him that the reason Asuna seemed to constantly badger him was because she was working out how she felt about him. But the leave-him-in-the-dark faction of Sinon's thoughts won out and she kept quiet about it. The sniper told herself that her motive was to stay out of her friends' personal affairs and not because of a mischievous desire to see Kirito and Asuna end up in a situation taken straight out of a romance comedy.

"Just—do it, alright?" Kirito pleaded. He waited until Sinon sighed and agreed before he moved for the door.

"Kirito-kun? The meeting isn't over yet." He was noticed almost immediately by the sharp-eyed female officer of the «KoB». She gave him a disapproving glare, hands placed on her hips.

The Black Swordsman chuckled nervously and held his hands up in a mock "I surrender." "This is pointless," he said, his chuckle evolving into a full laugh. To Sinon, he sounded similar to how he did after the 1st district battle. There was more of an edge to his laughter now compared to then, a noticeably more mocking tone contained within. Mocking everyone in the room, mocking the ones who were trapped in the 25th district, but most of all, it seemed directed at himself.

Asuna appeared to have made the connection herself as well, because she moved towards him with a concerned expression etched on her face. Sinon stopped her by lightly grabbing onto her arm as she walked by.

"Sinon! What are you doing!?" she hissed, quietly so that no one else would overhear. "Kirito-kun's going to—"

Sinon shook her head and indicated towards Kirito with her chin. "It's something he thinks he needs to do," she whispered quietly.

"If you're all too gutless to go in, by all means stay here in safety and rot," the boy was saying with a contemptuous smirk on his face. Angry murmurs began to fill the room. As front-liners who risked their lives almost daily, even if they rarely had the opportunity to participate in a boss battle as second-stringers, Kirito's words were a direct challenge to their sense of self-worth. "I doubt I'll be able to rescue anyone on my own, but there's sure to be easy pickings and decent loot in that room; players who have «Turned». So by all means, go ahead and ignore this man's plea for help." Kirito pointed with his thumb at Thinker. "I'll be sure to send your guild leaders a list of the items they missed out on because you cowards couldn't be bothered to earn your keep."

The leader of «The Army» made a move to draw his lance at Kirito's words, forgetting that they were all still in a «Safe Area», before Yulier stopped him by placing a hand on his chest. He took one glance at her face and sheepishly secured his weapon across his back. By the time he looked back up, the Black Swordsman had already slipped out of the room.

The room exploded in an uproar. Between calls for Kirito's head on a platter and arguments about whether they would let that insult stand or head for the district boss's lair, it was difficult to hear anything without blocking out all but a single conversation using the outside system skill, «Distinguish». Sinon counted up in her head, deciding to act once she reached a hundred. When she reached that number, the noise level in the room had actually increased rather than decreased.

Loading a round into the Hecate by manipulating the bolt, she fired straight up into the ceiling, prompting an «Immortal Object» tag to appear where the bullet struck. The noise level in the room immediately dropped to absolute silence. A few players had actually fallen down onto their rears in shock. The only sound that could be heard was the ringing in her ears from discharging her firearm. All eyes were upon her.

As casually as she could manage speaking while clearing out her ear with a pinky, Sinon addressed the room, "If you're going to come to a decision, do it already."

She received her share of angry glares, but thankfully, the guild representatives began to speak with Thinker. Sinon stayed out of it, choosing to move to the side of the room but keeping an ear tuned to her guild leader's conversation.

"I have a condition if we're to go in," the speaker for the «DDA» said. "It's only fair seeing as how we'll be risking our lives for strangers."

"Name it," Thinker replied, although by his expression, he seemed to have guessed what it would be already.

"Any loot we take from the «Turned» stays with us," the man stated. "I don't care about whether the other guilds here get the same terms, but that's what our aid will cost."

Yulier stepped forward, a protest already forming at her lips. This time, it was Thinker's turn to hold her back. Sinon lowered her head to hide her grin. The two of them really did do a good job of keeping one another in check.

"What are you doing, Thinker-san? This proposal is against everything that the guilds at the front have established!"

Thinker waved off her complaint and addressed the representative. "We'll accept your condition." He spoke quietly, but the weight of his words made them seem to echo about the room. "In order to save the lives of those under my protection, I'd even accept help from Kayaba Akihiko himself if it were offered. If material—no… If _virtual_ wealth is all that you require as payment for saving lives, I accept your condition and gladly."

* * *

Contrary to Sinon's expectations, Kirito wasn't waiting outside the entrance to the boss's lair for them. It seemed he had kept to his claim and gone on ahead. Asuna glared at the stonework door as if it had offended her, muttering 'reckless' repeatedly under her breath. Sinon ignored her friend for now and studied the design on the door, trying to ascertain any additional clues about what they were up against. The information from Wedge hadn't been very thorough. All they knew was that the boss was fast, much faster than anyone on foot, and had some form of ranged attack.

It didn't tell her much at all; the door's design was decidedly less ghastly than any other boss fight entrance. The carvings showed what appeared to be smooth, rounded rocks piled up half the height of the door. An unmoving tattered banner was raised at the top of the mound. The emblem it bore was a skyward pointing sword. Strange. This was too normal looking. That was when she realized the "rocks" looked odd and took a closer look.

They were skulls.

Upon noticing this, the entire design of the door seemed to shift. The artwork morphed into something more sinister. Grasping hands and bony protrusions, near-human faces contorted in the throes of death, details that Sinon couldn't believe she had missed on her first inspection, now jumped out at her. Startled, she looked around to see if anyone else had seen what she had. Judging by the disgusted looks on a few faces, they had.

When she turned back towards the door, it had returned to its original, bland design. She told herself that it wasn't just a trick of her mind. There really _had_ been two different door carvings just now.

"Right—stick close everyone, but be prepared for anything as soon as you step inside," Thinker commanded, speaking to the members of the «Ranged Division». The leader of the «ALF» and an officer of the «KoB» took their places at the head of the group and pushed the heavy stone doors open.

-o-

Sinon had been prepared to be momentarily blinded by dimmed lighting inside the chamber but that wasn't the case this time around. The room was well lit, but not in a way she had expected. There were still those sickly green ghost-flames floating around the edge of the room, wrapping around so far to either direction that Sinon could barely make out the curvature of the boss's lair but they were far dimmer than the true source of illumination.

The boss chamber, as Wedge had described in his report, was a cavernous underground town. The walls of the room formed a rocky dome that stretched a hundred meters above their heads. Sinon noted what appeared to be large metal pipes crisscrossing high above their heads and realized with a start that those were part of the sewer system for this district. The town in front of the rescue group was not unlike those of the earlier districts. Most of the buildings were two or three stories tall, white with wooden framework, and were closely packed together. The reason why the room was so well lit was because the majority of them had caught on fire.

"This is—," Phileas growled, his hand clenching tightly onto his musket. The other members of the «Ranged Division» instantly went on guard as well.

"Is that a cosmetic effect?" Asuna wondered out loud.

As if in answer to her question, a segment of a nearby structure collapsed, sending flaming timbers down into the street. Sinon focused her attention on the section that had broken off. Each of the objects had a separate health bar and those that were on fire were steadily taking damage.

"I guess not," Sinon answered. "We'll have to be careful of that as we proceed."

Thinker cursed. Sinon turned towards him in shock. Sure, it had only been mild profanity at best, but she couldn't recall him ever lapsing from his usual polite speech. "More delays," he said between gritted teeth. "Kibaou's going to have a lot to answer for. He should have known better when he's been entrusted with the lives of others!"

Before anyone could answer, three red lines appeared, tracing arcs from somewhere within the burning town straight into the group.

"Everyone get out of the line of fire!" Asuna shouted. The de-facto raid leader of the «KoB» had kept a cool head and given the order out nearly instantaneously. Despite her warning however, several members of the group of clearers remained rooted in place out of shock. Worst yet, one of them was the target of one of the three lines, the red beam pointing straight at his forehead.

Something thudded into the ground beside Sinon, followed quickly by a second object which slammed into the ground where the «Ranged Division» had been gathered mere seconds ago. The target of the final «Projectile Path Prediction Line» gave a whimper and threw his arms up to shield his head.

A blur of red and white moved in front of the man, and with a resounding clang, the final projectile was deflected off course. One of the dozen «KoB »shieldbearers gave the man he had saved a brief, unreadable glance before walking back towards his spot in the middle of the his guild's group.

Sinon examined the objects that had just flown into their midst. At first glanced, they looked to be three-meter long spears, but the fletching at the end told her they were arrows. Arrows with rusted steel shafts and heads the length of her arm. The fletching was tattered, but that didn't seem to hinder the accuracy of the shots just now.

"So, how do you want to set up the search, Thinker-san?" Asuna was asking. If getting shot at fazed her, she didn't show it at all. "There's far too much ground here to cover as a single group."

Thinker looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Don't you have someone who can track them?"

The «KoB» officer shook her head. "None of us here right now have that skill and even if we did, we'd end up following their exact trail. From what your underling reported, it sounds like they were lost and may have double-backed on their own trail repeatedly. Following their path would just get us lost as well."

Thinker considered that and nodded. "Alright, so we'll have to split up. How large do you recommend each group be?"

"At least 10 to a team, a dozen would be better," came the reply. "Your group is all ranged, right? You should mix up with some of our men to balance out the groups."

"What about the other guilds?" Thinker asked.

"No thanks," the «DDA» representative answered. "We'd rather not mingle with outsiders if we can help it."

Their opinion wasn't shared by a majority of the people present and in the end, Sinon ended up with Asuna in a group consisting of two other members of the «Ranged Division», one other «KoB» member, and half a dozen members of smaller guilds.

"Wait, how're we going to contact one another if one of our groups finds the missing people?" Yulier asked.

Asuna thought about that for a moment. Then, she withdrew a few items from her inventory and showed it to everyone.

"Fireworks?" Yulier asked.

"This is the system we use out in the field. Use the red ones if your group is in trouble, green if you find the missing people, and blue once every five minutes or so to let everyone know your group is alright as well as your general location," Asuna explained. "We'll split up now and I'll distribute some to the leader of each group."

Within a minute, they were all ready to go. Before they headed off with their respective groups, Sinon addressed the members of her division. "I don't think I need to tell you guys this anymore, but it'd be a pain in the ass if you got killed out there, so above all…"

"Stay alive," they answered back in a chorus, grins plastered across many of their faces.

* * *

"This place is way too big," Raker was complaining. "What the hell is with this boss fight?"

They had been walking for about five minutes now, heading counter-clockwise around the room along the perimeter of the chamber. Several times, the party had to make detours to get around burning obstacles in their path.

"Quit whining," a young man about the same age as him replied. "Just think of something positive. Like the loot we'll get."

Raker glared at the other teenager. "I wasn't whining. And what's with that carefree attitude? This your first boss fight or something, newbie?"

"So what if it is? I bet I have more field experience than you have. What kind of idiot only uses ranged weaponry?"

"Fine words coming from someone who named himself 'Jessie-James,' carries a wheel-lock pistol at his hip, and fails miserably at trying to dress like an outlaw," Raker retorted.

Jessie-James gave Raker a glare and made as if he were going to draw his gun. "I don't want to hear that coming from you! What the hell is with the name 'Raker' anyways?"

"Hey! That was uncalled for!" Raker exclaimed. "I picked a couple cool sounding foreign words for a name, but my friends all said 'Regent Ignis Kaiser' sounded stupid and pretentious and made me take out everything but the first mora of each word. 'Re-I-Ka'…"

Their loud argument drew the attention of the most senior member of the group. "Both of you shut the hell up unless you want more of those arrows flying our way," Phileas growled dangerously. "You're making too much noise."

If that wasn't enough, a low groan brought the two bickering teens to attention. Moments later, a grotesque figure in dark green armor shuffled into view. Thankfully, its head was mostly covered by the standard heavy infantry helmet the «Armored Division» wore, but the visor was cracked in such a way that one empty eye socket gazed outwards lifelessly. The undead's movements were only slightly hindered by the spear-like arrow piercing through its left shoulder.

"Sweet! Loot!" Jessie-James exclaimed cheerfully, drawing his pistol.

Phileas yanked him back and brought the boy up to his face. "Have some respect for the dead," he stated. Although his demeanor was calm, there was a bite to his words that he had never used before. "Do we understand each other?"

The boy swallowed and nodded. "Got it," he chuckled nervously.

"This isn't a game, not anymore," Phileas said as he drew his weapon. "There are times when it's alright to act stupid and have a good time. This isn't one of them. Not if you want to stay alive."

The «Turned» player had shambled towards their group with surprising speed during this interval. Its speed was somewhere around that of a light jog, significantly faster than that of a «Creeper». Hands extended, one clutching a shattered sword, it reached towards them.

Without hesitation, Phileas slowly pulled the trigger. From this range, less than 5 meters, it was impossible to miss. The former player's head exploded into a shower of prismatic light effects. The body collapsed backwards onto the ground and followed suit a moment later.

"We've wasted enough time," the elderly member of the «Ranged Division» stated, shouldering his gun after reloading. "The longer we take, the more likely someone else will end up like that unfortunate soul."

"Tceeh," Jessie-James sounded admiringly. Then, quietly to Raker, "He may be a spoilsport, but that old man's pretty badass. He didn't even blink when pulling the trigger! Is he always like this?"

Raker shook his head. "Not really. I think I liked him better when he was carefree and told stories."

The two boys ran to catch up to the rest of their party, ducking down when the flames above sent a shower of sparks around them.

* * *

If the male members of the party thought they lucked out in having two girls in their group, they soon learned better. Between Sinon's icy air as she completely ignored the people she didn't know and Asuna's steely no-nonsense attitude towards achieving their goal, the number of attempts to initiate a casual conversation with either girl dropped off to zero within the first few minutes of their trek.

"Strange," Asuna said, looking around. "I haven't seen any sign of the boss or any «Turned» since that arrow barrage at the beginning."

Sinon nodded, and scanned the surroundings with her «Searching» skill active. It really was too silent around. Unnervingly so. The only noise came from the crunching of stones beneath their feet and the crackle of the fires around them.

Their group was responsible for heading straight towards the center of the room. Out of all the parties they had split into, Sinon guessed that theirs had the greatest likelihood of encountering either enemies or survivors from the «Melee Division».

"Shouldn't we call out to them?" one two-handed sword wielder asked. "They could be hiding from the boss and didn't notice us pass by."

"Go ahead," Sinon replied. "Just don't blame us if the boss puts an arrow through your head for your trouble."

"I'm fine with my head in one piece, thanks," he replied. Sinon's comment had the unexpected but pleasing side-effect of reducing the chatter coming from the group following the two girls.

A creaking noise had them all turning about suddenly. A segment of a nearby building came falling down, crashing to the ground in a shower of debris. One clearer was a moment too slow in jumping out of the way and was struck in the leg as he leapt to the side. Members of the «Ranged Division» immediately ran to his aid, pulling him free. As he drank a potion and healed up from the damage he had sustained, Sinon took a moment to closely examine the collapsed wall.

"So that's how it's done," she said. Immediately, everyone seemed to gather around her. "Objects in the field usually have too much durability to destroy without breaking a few dozen weapons bashing at them but they should follow the same pattern as any other zero durability item," Sinon explained. "The reason they don't shatter into a million pieces upon reaching zero durability is that the flames are either a trigger to convert them into segments or the flames affect something that's holding segments together. I don't know which."

As the clearers focused on the section, the item's name should have appeared in front of them as it had for Sinon. «Unfixed Wall Segment». Like the buildings around them, it had its own durability numbers. It wasn't something that would help them at all, but it was relieving to know that the rules of the game hadn't suddenly changed on them.

"All healed up?" Asuna was asking the man who had been struck by the falling debris. "Let's move out then."

As they proceeded, the road twisted and turned in such a way that it became difficult to tell what direction they were currently traveling in. Sinon had taken note of the tallest building in sight, a clock-tower, and was using it to keep her bearings. Most of their group didn't seem as prudent.

"Gah! We're lost!"

"I could have sworn we've seen that burning building before!"

To make things worse, the boss just happened to choose that time to target their group. Four red lines appeared one by one into the middle of the group followed shortly by those massive arrows thudding into the ground, creating large cracks in the paved stone road.

"That's it! I'm out of here! I'm not going to get trapped in here and die like a rat for the sake of people I don't even know!"

The members of the party unaffiliated with the «KoB» or the «ALF» broke off and ran. Asuna shouted something at them that was lost in the din of their panic. Sinon noted dryly that they had scattered in different directions. She hadn't expected second-string members of the other clearing guilds to be as disciplined as the main group, but this was just pathetic.

Their group was now down to five. The «Ranged Division» members other than Sinon seemed a little nervous at having lost half the group nearly instantly but held off their panic admirably. The «KoB» members didn't seem to be affected beyond going into a more alert state. Asuna looked as if she wanted to chase the runners down and drag them back by the ear. However, that was a task that would be impossible even for one swift enough to earn the nickname, «The Flash». She sighed and gave the order to keep moving.

The empty streets seemed even more menacing with fewer numbers by her side. Sinon shook her head and chastised herself. She was getting complacent; too used to having others around to watch her back. She latched on to that thought. She needed to relearn the mindset of her days before joining the guild.

They were just passing a narrow alleyway when a hand shot out and grabbed Asuna by the arm.

"Kyaaa~!"

The «KoB »officer gave a decidedly un-Asuna-like scream, jumped half a meter into the air, and drew her pistol before realizing who had latched onto her arm.

"Nice to see you too," Kirito grinned. He took the barrel of Asuna's gun between his pointer finger and thumb and moved it so it wasn't pointing directly at him. "I'd rather not get shot though, if you don't mind."

"K-k-k-Kirito-kun? Where have you been?" Asuna asked angrily, quickly regaining her composure. She pointed a finger at his face accusingly. "And you have some nerve, almost driving people to a riot with your antics back in the meeting room."

Kirito shrugged. "It got you all here, didn't it? Although come to think of it, I guess the promise of loot wasn't enough to keep those guys who were with you earlier from running off."

"You were there to see that!? Why didn't you meet up with us earlier?" Asuna asked, her voice barely below the level of shouting. The «KoB» members shuffled about nervously as they rarely, if ever, saw this side of their sub-leader before.

"Hello? That little stunt I pulled? Not exactly going to make the people I did that to very happy to see me. The regulars know me well enough to suspect that those weren't my real intentions, but the new guys?" Kirito replied, sounding unconcerned. "But we have more important issues. I scouted ahead and we're close to a group of survivors. They're over in that direction." He pointed a bit to the right in the direction the group had been heading. "The thing is, there's an obstruction and I'm not sure how long a detour will take."

"Why didn't you say something sooner?" Asuna demanded, all annoyance at the swordsman before her vanishing instantly. She ran off ahead, shouting back towards everyone else, "We need to get there now!"

Kirito shook his head and wondered out loud, "And she calls _me_ reckless?" Laughing softly, he rushed after the girl in white.

Kirito led the group in the direction he had indicated. As they walked, Sinon began to hear the sounds of combat creeping closer. One voice shouting desperate commands was, unfortunately, very familiar to her. It seemed Kibaou was still alive.

The "obstruction" Kirito had mentioned turned out to be a three meter high pile of burning timbers. Looking through the flames to the other side, Sinon could make out a fair number of players, a group of about two dozen, beset by an equal number of armor wearing undead.

"Oh wow, looks like they're taking quite the beating," Kirito noted to Sinon. "We need to find a way around this mess, I suppose. Should we take it at a leisurely pace and hope that old windbag bites the dust?"

"Kirito! I can't believe you would even— ," Asuna began to scold him, looking extremely displeased.

Kirito raised his hands to show he had been joking, "I was only half-serious. But they're a pretty tight spot, we might not reach them in time if we take a roundabout way."

"Half-serious?!"

Kirito grinned humorlessly at Asuna. "When the only people you meet on a daily basis want to eat your brains, one tends to develop a rather twisted sense of humor. Anyway…it looks like this barrier is too high to jump normally and there's no way to scale it…"

He pulled Sinon over to the side without warning. The fire cast dancing shadows across his face, obscuring his eyes and making it difficult for Sinon to tell what he was planning. Not that she usually had a clue when it came to Kirito. Expect one thing from him and he would run off in a completely different direction.

"W-What are you doing?" Sinon asked, feeling her face flush. Kirito's seemingly arbitrary actions usually threw her off balance and she hated not knowing what was going on.

"Just stay put over here for a second, alright Sinon?" Kirito requested. "Need to see if this'll work…"

He walked behind her, the sound of his footsteps getting further and further away. A moment later, she heard him returning, quickly. Asuna was calling his name and demanding to know what he was doing. Sinon was just about to turn around when something slammed into her shoulder with great force, sending her stumbling to the side. A streak of black flew overhead, just barely clearing the burning barrier.

"Made it over," Kirito called back over to the group. "I'll go on ahead and buy some time for you guys. Go ahead and find another way through."

Sinon recovered her footing quickly and shouted at Kirito's back as he ran off, "I'll definitely get you back for that one, you moron!"

She was in the process of mumbling a complaint to herself when she heard the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching her from behind yet again. This time, she spun about quickly to see what was going on; an action that proved to be a bit of a mistake.

"Kirito-kun, you IDIOT!"

A shadow descended upon Sinon as she finished her 180 degree turn. All she managed to see was a mass of white before Asuna's boot stepped directly on her face. This time, she ended up falling onto her backside as a white meteor flew after the black one.

"Sorry Sinon!" Asuna called back as she hastily ran after Kirito.

"Damn it Asuna!" Sinon screamed at her friend. "I'm not a—" Her exasperation caught up with her, overwhelming her ability to remain calm. "You know what!? Forget it! You two go ahead on your little date together! See if I care!"

She turned to face the remaining members of her group. Half of them were dumbfounded and the other half had amused grins on their faces.

"What? You want to use me as a springboard too?" she snapped. "Tell you what, I'll make it easy for you. Bend over and I'll punt you across after them. Any takers?" When they all shook their heads vigorously "no", she harrumphed and walked off, calling back to the rest of the party. "I'm going to find a higher vantage point to map out the area. Make yourselves useful and find a way to where those two are. Try not to get yourselves killed; I don't feel like wasting the bullets that it'll take to bring you down when you come back to life as undead."

* * *

"Are we going to get out of here as soon as we find where the «Melee Divisions» are?"

Yulier directed her question to Thinker as they walked. He seemed lost in contemplation and didn't answer her immediately. She had some notion of what he must be going through. On the one hand, Kibaou and his followers almost certainly deserved whatever they were facing right now through their own recklessness and pride. It couldn't be easy on him, scrounging up support and risking even more lives for the sake of this task. But, as someone who felt she understood him well, Yulier knew he felt duty-bound to do everything he could for a fellow guild member. She just wished "everything" didn't include risking his own life and limb on the battlefield.

"That depends on the situation," Thinker answered absently. "If there're complications that prevent extracting them, we might need to take down the boss. Not to mention—"

He trailed off and brandished his lance. An enemy had appeared before them, drawn in by the noise their group had been making as they trekked along. With a shout, he lunged forwards, a blue glow enveloping his weapon as he struck. He caught his enemy in the throat with the point of his weapon, whipped the spearhead to the side, and dealt a blow to the back of the enemy's head as he stepped around his foe. Two-hit spear skill «Tidal Crescent», a mid-level attack that was useful in flanking an enemy.

The enemy's health dropped by about 5%, miniscule damage by the standards of a frontliner. His time away from the hostile districts was showing. Yulier swung her whip around and lashed out with it, dealing minor damage as well but more importantly, disrupted the monster's counterattack and afforded Thinker a brief moment to recover from the momentary stun at the end of using a «Skill». While the «Turned» player was still focused on Thinker, a «Striker» from the «KoB» ran in from behind, shredding away the enemy's health with a three-hit curved-sword combo. Lastly, Sataki ended the fight, blowing away the last 20% of the enemy's heath with a well-placed shot to the unarmored part of its head.

"Those guys are pretty tough. I know the strength of a «Turned» is based on the strength of the player and the creature that converted him but still…surviving a combo from one of us!" Godfree laughed, scratching at his beard. "Guess it's alright though. It makes for a good fight at least!" Then, with an apologetic gesture to Thinker. "Ah, that didn't come out right. I'm sorry. I know that «Turned» was once your guild member. But if the others are all as strong as that one, perhaps the rest are still alive."

Thinker took one look at the boisterous man's earnest face and sighed wearily. "No, it's alright. You don't need to try to sugarcoat things. I'm well aware of what a disaster this situation is. What matters is doing what we can to salvage what's left. Let's keep moving."

He began to walk off, prompting Yulier to hurry to catch up. When she fell in stride next to him, he asked quietly, "Do you think any of them are still alive?"

"There's always hope," she replied.

He sighed again, melancholy evident on every feature. "I was thinking, if I was just more attentive to the everyday needs of the people in the guild. If I had just worked a little harder at making sure everyone was satisfied with how the guild was being run…maybe something like this wouldn't have happened."

"Do you _want_ me to get angry with you?" Yulier asked in exasperation. "You're only one person. No one expects you to handle everything yourself and you know well enough that you've done all and everything you could to make the guild as good a place for every member. No one can ask more of you than that."

"You really know how to make a man feel—," he answered before his face turned ashen. Without warning, Thinker threw himself at Yulier, knocking her to the ground. She hammered at his chest, face bright red.

"W-what are you doing?!" Yulier exclaimed. His face was too close and looked blurry for a moment before her eyes adjusted. Her ears were heating up rapidly at this point and she wouldn't have been surprised if steam were issuing forth from them like in one of those old animated films.

That was when she noticed the red beam that extended from somewhere out of view within the town to where she had been standing a moment earlier. The sickening "tchunk!" as the spear-length arrow drove itself into the ground next to them sent chills down her spine. She had been looking away from the direction it had come from. If Thinker hadn't pushed her aside…

"Sorry about that," Thinker apologized. "There just wasn't any time and—"

"Don't worry about it," Yulier snapped back, a little too quickly in an effort to hide her embarrassment. The leader of the «ALF» gave her a nervous smile.

"Save it for the bedroom, you two. Looks like we've got company," Godfree noted, brandishing his claymore with one hand while grinning down at the two of them. It seemed the burly man had misunderstood their relationship.

A loud groan emanating from nearby brought her back to reality. They were still in the middle of hostile territory. Yulier struggled to disentangle herself from Thinker. A group of three «Turned» had just appeared from a nearby alleyway. She readied her whip and prepared to meet the enemy.

* * *

"Ah! This is boring!"

Raker rolled his eyes as yet another complaint issued forth from Jessie-Jame's mouth. Of course, he really couldn't say anything himself as he shared the other teen's sentiments. After that initial encounter, their group hadn't run across any enemies, let alone the boss. It was almost as if the boss of this district was purposely trying to lull them into a false sense of security by not targeting them at all.

It seemed to be working too. Most of the group had started chatting about random topics or looking through their inventories without a care in the world. There was one notable exception. Not only was Phileas looking down every alleyway and around every corner as if he expected an ambush, but he continuously scanned the windows of the buildings around them as if the boss might leap out from inside.

"I wish you wouldn't do that," Raker muttered to the older man. "It makes me feel like we're going to get jumped any moment now."

"It's an old habit," Phileas explained, ignoring Raker's wish. "Don't mind me."

"Trying hard not to."

The group continued on in that vein for a while, with Phileas's behavior making Raker more nervous by the minute. In time, he found himself looking at every shadow as if it would start moving towards him with ill intent. He barely managed to keep himself from shooting when he heard the sound of clattering coming from the side, but it was just a piece of masonry falling to the ground.

The burning buildings around them might have illuminated the journey, but Raker found himself wishing for the doom and gloom lighting from the previous boss fight. At least there wasn't the threat of a house collapsing down on top of him there.

"Oh nice! Finally, some action!"

A celebratory cheer came from the front of their group as two of the living dead shambled into view, their rusted swords scraping on the floor as they moved. One still had an arrow jutting through his torso. It made a scraping sound as the projectile's point was dragged along the ground behind the monster.

There was a clatter of shields, weapons, and armor as the group charged ahead down the narrow alleyway towards the enemy. Raker readied his rifle and ran to follow, only to be stopped dead in his tracks as someone grabbed onto his collar and pulled him back. His feet swung out in front as he lost his balance and fell.

"What the hell?" Raker exclaimed, rubbing at his throat. He glared up at the person who had stopped him.

A rumble brought his attention elsewhere a second later as flaming timbers and a shower of bricks rained down into the alleyway in front of them. A cry of dismay came from somewhere underneath that mess; someone had gotten trapped underneath. The cries grew more desperate until, a few seconds later, a burst of light particles escaped from the large pile of debris with the sound of glass breaking. Realizing that could have been him just now, Raker found himself retching.

"Did—did you know that would happen?" Raker asked, wiping at his mouth with the sleeve of his uniform.

"No. I'm not precognitive if that's what you're asking," Phileas replied. "But experience tells me that rushing in when there's so many new and unknown factors is foolish. Keep that in mind if you're planning on staying alive."

Raker stared up at the middle-aged man questioningly. Something about him had changed since they had entered the boss's lair. It wasn't that Phileas was being more strict than normal; the older man usually became deadly serious whenever things required, but he seemed on edge.

"Sheesh, you really took the Sergeant's words to heart didn't you, old man?" Raker exclaimed, getting to his feet. He still felt a little shaken by what had just happened, but at least he no longer felt like he was going to vomit.

"That girl has the right idea as far as living on the frontlines is concerned. I can't agree with her lone-wolf mentality though," Phileas answered. He gave Raker an appraising look. "Feeling alright enough to move? Then we should get going. I don't like standing around waiting for an enemy to show up and we need to rendezvous with the others. Or at least find another group. No offense kid, but you're a bit on the green side and I'd like to have people who can actually handle themselves in a fight in my group."

"What was that!?" Raker exclaimed. "I've got, like, 3 levels on you! Hey wait! Where the hell are you going? Isn't this the perfect time to launch a red firework and stay put? Dammit! I'm coming, so slow down already!"

The boy broke into a run in order to catch up, making sure to keep an eye on the surrounding buildings. He didn't want to test his luck against another avalanche of masonry.

* * *

"Will you stop being so reckless for once!? I swear, one day I'll just let you go ahead and fulfill that death wish you seem to have. Do you _enjoy_ causing people trouble? Are you even listening to me!?"

Kirito grinned as Asuna continued her tirade against him, pausing only to decapitate his target before he answered her. "Hey, it worked, didn't it?" he retorted. "Besides, it's not like you didn't go right ahead and follow behind immediately. And for someone who's complaining so much, you seem to be backing me up almost flawlessly."

He wasn't praising her without reason. She was guarding him from being flanked and had prevented him from being surrounded twice already. Not that being encircled would have posed much of a threat to him besides slowing him down a bit, but it was the thought that counted. In addition, she «Switched» in whenever he created a gap in an opponent's defenses and generated many opportunities for him to do the same. She embodied the very essence of a "team player." He found it surprising that her skills meshed so well with his own, considering how rarely he partied with people.

Within three minutes, half the enemy numbers had been slain, buying the survivors of «The Army» some breathing room to regroup. They did so, forming a defensive line in front of the more critically injured members, but the members of the «Melee Divisions» looked exhausted. Their once parade-ready armor was dented and scratched and their shields were battered to the point where Kirito was surprised they offered any protection at all. Still, they held on long enough for Kirito and Asuna to finish off the rest of the foes in the vicinity.

"Huh, that wasn't so bad," Kirito noted. "I thought clearer-tier «Turned» were supposed to be more of a challenge than that."

Asuna slapped him on the back of the head. "Don't mock the dead."

"I wasn't," Kirito replied dryly. "Just commenting on whether they should even be at a boss fight at their level. It's not like they've been to any district clearing raids before, right?" Then with a smirk, he added, "And if you'd used just a little more force, your marker would have turned orange just now, you know. Not something the prim and proper princess of the «KoB» should be seen with, right?"

Asuna brandished her rapier, pointing it just under his nose. "What did you just call me?"

"Absolutely nothing," Kirito replied innocently, leaning back to put a little distance between himself and the weapon. "You must have been hearing things. Now if you don't mind, we should probably get to seeing if those guys are alright."

The members of «The Army» they had just rescued seemed dazed. The majority sat down on the ground, trying to catch their breath. One gave a ragged cheer when he realized they were safe for the time being, but the cry didn't catch on and quickly died. For the most part, they stared wordlessly at Kirito and Asuna as if they hadn't expected to see friendly players ever again; perhaps they hadn't. The fight had gone out of them. Another wave of enemies would likely have spelled their end. One person however, didn't seem to be pleased to see his rescuers.

"Y-you! You're the Beater that killed Diabel-san! You bastard! How dare you come here and steal away my moment of glory!"

Kibaou was screaming at Kirito, his face a bright red. Out of all the players they had just saved, he seemed to be the only one who had any energy left. The rest of them had slumped to the ground and barely seemed to be paying no mind to their leader. Even Kibaou's counterpart in the Armored Division, some burly guy who Kirito couldn't be bothered to remember the name of, was unwilling to do anything other than stare.

"Moment of glory?" Asuna screamed at the raging man. "Do you have any idea how many people died today because of you? There's no glory in this at all!" Kirito held an arm in front of her, preventing her from getting too close to Kibaou.

"Nice to see you too, Cactus head-dono," Kirito answered with mocking politeness. He even performed a graceful European-style bow to emphasize his words. "Glad to see our timely rescue is appreciated. Where are the rest of your men? Between the ones here and the «Turned» we just wiped out, there should be at least a hundred more of you. Don't tell me you got them all killed with your incompetence. About what I'd expect from someone who hasn't been to a boss fight in over 20 districts." He turned around and shrugged. "Oh well, I guess the only thing that matters is that there are some survivors. Asuna, we'd best arrange for the others to come to this spot. These guys don't look like they'll last much longer if more enemies show up and I don't really trust their brain-dead leader to keep them out of combat."

"Graaah!"

With a roar, Kibaou charged forwards with surprising speed and slashed horizontally across Kirito's exposed back. A red wireframe appeared where the blade had passed through. Had this been reality, it was a blow that would have severed the boy's spine.

"Kirito-kun!" Asuna cried out. She drew her weapon but hesitated, unsure as to what to do in this situation.

Kirito turned around, surprise etched on his features as he confronted the newly-turned «Orange Player». "You," he exclaimed incredulously, looking down at Kibaou's curved sword. The commander of the «Striker Division» stared back with a maniacal cast to his eyes and a mad grin plastered across his face. The man's hands were shaking badly. Kirito sighed and scratched his head, the casual movement shocking the man he was addressing. "Really, a perfect back attack; unparried, unblocked, and you only managed to deal a hundred damage? That's pathetic. Your level is no higher than the early 20's, I'd guess. That's barely passable for fighting normal mobs outside as part of a group. What the hell have you been up to since the first district? Sitting on your ass and giving orders the entire time? How the hell did you survive this long inside the boss area?"

Kibaou backed up in horror as Kirito slowly walked towards him. The man held his sword out at arm's length as if it would keep the boy from reaching him. Reaching out, the Black Swordsman wrenched the blade out of the division leader's hands. After studying it for a brief moment, he snapped the weapon in half with his bare hands, watching impassively as the pieces shattered in an explosion of light a second later.

"Overly ornate to the point where its durability is worthless in a real fight," Kirito scoffed contemptuously. Turning to Asuna, he asked in a calm tone, "You don't mind if I tie him up, do you? It'll make transporting him a pain in the ass, but at least he won't try to pull that backstabbing thing on anyone else."

"Ah—go for it, I guess," Asuna answered, still in the process of recovering from what had just transpired.

"Permission obtained!" Kirito exclaimed cheerfully, conjuring a length of rope from his menu. He stretched part of it taut threateningly as he spoke to Kibaou. "Now hold still, I don't want to 'accidentally' tie a noose around your neck instead of a proper restraint."

Needless to say, Kibaou wasn't particularly cooperative. He screamed incoherently, flailed about, and made a commotion that probably attracted every undead within a half-kilometer radius.

"Oy, Orange-kun…I don't think you realize the position you're in," Kirito said with deadly calm. "You see, the system has judged your actions as criminal. That means you have no rights. I could slit your throat, toss you over a cliff, push you into a burning building, or tie you up and leave you here for your former buddies to chow on and, by the rules of this world, it won't be any more criminal than stepping on an ant. So I'd really suggest you don't try my patience, alright?"

Catching onto Kirito's performance, Asuna interjected, "I would listen to him if I were you. He's crazy enough to live out in the field rather than in a district like any sane player would. I wouldn't be surprised if he really did snap and do one of those things…"

The man was so stunned that he didn't even protest until Kirito had finished binding his arms and was beginning to work at lashing his legs together. It was at that point when he finally reclaimed some of his arrogance.

"What do you think you're doing? Do you have any idea who I am? I'll make life miserable for you, you lousy Beater! You hear me? You ca—"

His words were cut off as Kirito stuffed a dirty rag in his mouth. "Right," the boy said as he patted the man's head. "I _knew _I was forgetting something. Thanks for the reminder."

His task complete, Kirito walked back over to Asuna. She glanced over at Kibaou, who was struggling to break free of his bindings. "You really hate that guy, don't you?" she noted dryly.

"Let's see—he was the one who started this whole 'Beater' nonsense, continued whipping people into a frenzy to stay in power even when it became apparent that most beta players either died early or tried to help in any way that they could, thereby slowing down the progress of the clearing group nearly single-handedly," Kirito began, counting off on his fingers. "He obviously used his men as human shields to stay alive in here, sent Sinon and company off on a suicide mission—oh, and most importantly, he has terrible fashion sense. By the way—what did you mean earlier about me being crazy? I'm perfectly sane!"

"Right…" Asuna replied sarcastically. "No comment. In any case, we'd better contact the others. There's safety in numbers, after all."

"Are they all healed up already?"

Asuna shook her head. "They didn't have much left in terms of supplies. I gave what I could spare out to the ones who needed it most but—"

Kirito nodded, "You did what you could. No one expects you to carry enough healing supplies for 4 full parties worth of people. We should get these guys out of here as soon as possible, but I don't think our job's over just yet."

"Of course it is," she answered. "We're only here to rescue the «Melee Divisions». We're not here to fight the boss."

Kirito pointed to the group behind him with his thumb. Most were still nursing their wounds or shaking in fear. "You see those guys? Call me cynical, but I'm guessing they're the most die-hard of Kibaou's supporters. If your companions were dropping dead one by one from arrows coming out of nowhere, would you stick around waiting to become the next shish kabob?" Asuna frowned at him, hands on her hips.

Kirito grinned and corrected himself. "Alright," he admitted, "maybe _you_ would, but I'd place all of my «Col» on a bet that we have more deserters than just the one who made it back to the «Black Iron Castle»."

"So you're saying you want to search for the rest of them?" Asuna asked. "Do you have any idea how long that might take or how hard it would be? Not to mention the number of people whose lives we'd be risking to do it. We might end up losing more people than we rescue."

Kirito looked her in the eyes. "Are you saying we should leave them here to die, Asuna? I didn't think you were that heartless."

"That's not what I was talking about at all!" It seemed Asuna had reached the end of her patience with him. She grabbed him by the collar and brought his face down close to her own. "You might be fine and willing to get yourself killed trying to save people while playing the part of the hero, but I have responsibilities to keep my own guild members out of harm's way whenever it can be done. It's not something a solo player like you can ever understand!"

"I know it's a hard choice to make," Kirito said softly. He leaned his face in a little closer to Asuna's and looked her in the eye. She let go of his collar hastily and took a step back. It might have been his imagination, but he thought some of the red on her cheeks weren't coming from the light of the nearby fires or from her anger at him. He continued, "That's why I'm not telling you to stay, not that I can do that, in any case. I'm only asking that you do so. My instincts are telling me that we'll have fewer casualties overall if we tackle the boss here and now."

"Just your instincts?" Asuna asked. "That's not a whole lot to go on."

Kirito's face hardened as he turned away from her. "They've kept me alive so far, haven't they? It'd be a lot easier if you just trusted me on this, but we'll continue this conversation later. Right now, I need you to get those guys and bring them somewhere more secure before calling for the others— Hurry!"

She opened her mouth to protest but then she heard what he had too. His high level «Searching» skill had detected the approach of the enemy a few seconds earlier than she did. Wordlessly, she nodded and moved back towards the group from the «ALF».

"What about you, Kirito-kun?" she asked worriedly.

Kirito drew his sword from the scabbard on his back and swung it down sharply to his side. "I think you already know my plan. I'll buy you some time to get away and meet up with you once you launch the signal."

Despite himself, he found himself smiling. The boss was coming. This would be his first major fight in almost two weeks. A burst of adrenaline coursed through his body, heightening his senses. It was funny how alive he felt right now, surrounded by death and decay.

The sound of hooves striking stone came closer with each passing moment. From the corner of his eye, Kirito could see the last of the men struggling to their feet, using their weapons to prop themselves up. This was taking too long. Far too long for his taste.

A loud neigh sounded from the alleyway on the left side of the street in front of him, Moments later, a massive shadow leapt out, slamming to the ground and skidding to a halt with a resounding thud. The ground shook slightly beneath Kirito's feet. There was a cry of dismay from behind him and the boy heard armor clanking rapidly as «The Army» sped up their retreat. The boss had finally shown up.

"Time to get to work," Kirito muttered to himself as he lowered into a running position.

He glanced at the boss, taking in its appearance before looking at its name. The monster was roughly 5 meters tall. The skeletal figure was clad in white robes and tarnished silver breastplate worked in gold. A dented and battered crown encircled the top of the being's head. It carried a recurve bow half again as large as Kirito and a quiver bristling with massive arrows hung at its hip. A pale blue glint escaped from the depths of its eye sockets, drawing a faint trail whenever it moved its head. The boss itself rode upon a steed. It was hard see the horse's hide due to the extent of the mount's decay and the color of the lighting in the room, but the horse was probably once white as snow. Most of the bones were exposed and its head was entirely skeletal. Like its master, a blue glow emanated from within its eye sockets.

Kirito turned his attention to the boss's name and health bar. It had five bars of hp, all of them full except for the first which was at roughly 30%. Despite their heavy losses, Kibaou's men had at least managed to deal some damage to the enemy. It had a simple name that belied the sheer number of people it had been responsible for the deaths of: «The White Rider».

The decrepit horse gave an agitated snort and scraped the ground with a front hoof as its eyes fell upon Kirito. The rider, however, stared past the Black Swordsman at the retreating figures of the «ALF». Slowly and deliberately, it slid an arrow out of its quiver and nocked it. Drawing the bowstring back to its cheekbone caused a red line appeared in the air, centered on the back of the rearmost member of «The Army». The fleeing member looked back just in time to see it release the arrow. His eyes widened in fear.

"No you don't!"

With a shout, Kirito stepped towards the red line. He'd have to time this perfectly if he was to succeed, but he knew somehow that he wasn't going to fail. He swung his sword upwards with as much force as he could muster on short notice, intercepting the arrow just as it passed through the air next to him. The arrow spun end over end in the air and, in a burst of adrenaline and insanity, Kirito caught the shaft of the projectile in his free hand. Running at the boss at full speed, he leapt to the side to avoid being trampled by the boss's mount and stabbed it in the flank with his makeshift spear.

The mount whinnied and wheeled about, trying to stomp this new pest flat. Kirito avoided the hooves of the animal and dealt it a slash to the back of the leg. He could never quite break the habit of attacking that part of an enemy. For the majority of mobs, hamstringing it resulted in a slowing debuff that made hunting a lot easier. On bosses, it had little effect beyond the damage it dealt.

Kirito's position behind the boss allowed him to check on the progress of the retreat. The men were all out of sight already; only Asuna had stayed behind. She made a move to draw her rapier, but he stopped her with a quick shake of his head and a nod to indicate that she should get going. She hesitated briefly, but then took her hand off the hilt of her weapon.

"Don't you dare get yourself killed while I'm not there to watch your back," she shouted before disappearing down a street.

Kirito couldn't help but grin. Get himself killed? As if. Contrary to Asuna's opinion, he was probably one of the most cautious members of the clearing group. He only resorted to flashy, attention-grabbing antics when the alternative was that someone might die. Come to think of it, maybe Asuna had a point about his recklessness. People around him always seemed to be in life-threatening situations.

"Too late to worry about that now," Kirito muttered to himself as the boss turned around to face him.

He hurriedly dodged out of the way of another crushing hoof-strike and countered with a strong upwards blow. The boss's health bar moved slightly from the hit. Kirito looked the boss in the eye for one moment and before turning to his left and dashed down the nearest alleyway. The boss froze for a split second before pursuing, the behavioral algorithm taking a moment to switch from "close range combat" to "pursue."

Kirito kept his eyes forwards as he ran and focused his hearing on the sounds of coming from behind him. The moment he heard the rasping of rusted metal scraping across leather, he ducked and rolled around a corner into another alleyway. An arrow slammed into the ground where he had been a second earlier, throwing up fragments of cobblestones where it struck. Instead of continuing to run, Kirito decided to try something else to keep the boss occupied.

With a brief running start, he took a few steps up the wall of the first building he saw that hadn't caught on fire yet and caught onto the windowsill on the second floor. Using the momentum he still had, he vaulted through the empty frame and into the building, rolling to his feet as soon as his back touched the ground. It was a maneuver worthy of «Acrobatics», but Kirito hadn't actually taken that «Skill». Instead, he had practiced escape techniques over and over until he could perform them without any form of «System Assist». Some players might have scoffed at such a frivolous use of time, but the end result was that Kirito had nearly the same benefit of having taken «Acrobatics» without investing in the skill itself.

Without waiting, he immediately ducked behind cover, his «Hiding» skill automatically making it more difficult for the boss to detect him. He chanced a peek out the window towards the direction he had come from. «The White Rider» stood at the corner of the street, its eyes glowing eerily as it scanned the road for Kirito's presence. Slowly, it walked its mount down the street.

Just as the boss passed the house Kirito was holed up in, he heard something not unlike a distant thunderclap. Kirito looked on as the rider's head was slammed backwards, his horse rearing up in surprise. A fragment of the boss's crown broke off, clanging as it hit the street.

Kirito gave a low whistle. "Nice shot, Sinon," he whispered appreciatively, knowing that there was no possibility of the girl he had complimented overhearing.

Taking advantage of the boss's momentary confusion as it adjusted to the presence of a new enemy, Kirito leapt out of the second story window and, spinning as he fell to add to his momentum, swung his sword full force. It was just a basic «Horizontal», but managing to pull it off while falling was no small feat. In addition, the added speed and force from dropping down as well as rotating in the air added to the power of the overall attack. To top things off, he managed to strike right at the base of the boss's neck, a critical area for any humanoid enemy. The resulting attack did roughly as much damage as Sinon's shot had earlier with the result being that, between the two attacks, another 5% of the boss's first health bar had been depleted.

Kirito landed on his feet and dashed past «The White Rider» as soon as he recovered from using a skill. It sounded as if Sinon's shot had come from the tower about half a kilometer away. From this distance, he couldn't see where she was hiding, but Kirito knew she was probably still looking in his direction through her gun's scope. As such, he grinned, waved, and gave a thumbs-up at the top of the tower as he ran down the street.

Behind him, there was an angry snort and the sound of a bowstring being drawn back. Kirito looked back as he ran, prepared to either dodge or try to deflect the arrow as it flew towards him, but it turned out there was no need. A flash of light came from a window at the top of the tower with a loud bang trailing behind. The boss was knocked off-balance just as it released its arrow and the shot flew harmlessly into the side of a nearby building, knocking down another segment of wall.

That gave Kirito an idea. He fumbled around through his pouch for a smokescreen and deployed it, enveloping the surrounding area in a dark gray cloud. Then, he dashed inside of a burning building and up to the second floor. Focusing his attention on the wall, he was able to determine that the durability of the building was nearing empty; he had figured that the flames were a trigger that slowly sapped away at an object's health. If an enemy attack could knock down a chunk of a building by decreasing its durability, there was no reason why he couldn't as well. Kirito then concentrated on the street below, seeking out the enemy with his «Searching» skill. He made his move the moment the boss was under his building.

Alternating between sword strikes and «Martial Arts» blows, he chained together an attack that struck along the full length of the wall. The boy took a little damage as well from the proximity of the flames, but it wasn't enough to be worrisome. Destabilized by his assault, the wall of the second floor fell outwards on top of the enemy. Kirito grinned viciously as «The White Rider» was buried in rubble.

He didn't have long to celebrate his success though. Moments later, something nearby began to groan. He looked around quickly for signs of a «Turned» before realizing that what he had heard came from the floor above him. Destroying part of the wall had done more than just inconvenience the boss; it also destabilized the entire structure. The ceiling and floor began to tilt dangerously, large cracks beginning to show in the ceiling and remaining walls.

"Shit…not good," Kirito muttered.

Blood pounding in his head as he ran, Kirito jumped out of the side of the building he had wrecked single-handedly, rolling as he hit the ground below. His momentum carried him into the side of the house on the other side of the street. The structure he had been in collapsed seconds later, sending a cloud of ash and dust billowing into his face.

Kirito blinked a few times before sitting up. He surveyed the damage he had done; debris, half of it still burning, formed a slope in the middle of the street, ending a mere half meter from where he sat. The boss was nowhere to be seen although, based on how the pile of rubble was shifting, it would not be held down for long.

There was no point in staying in this area; he had to keep on moving. The sound of an explosion reached his ear and Kirito turned around just in time to see the blossom of green firework fade away. Asuna had completed her task. He should keep his promise to meet up with her. But first, he should pay a visit to the sniper who had backed him up. As he ran towards the tower he had seen the muzzle flash come from, Kirito was struck by a certain thought: Sinon would probably be less than pleased to see him after he had used her as launch pad.

* * *

Sinon stayed still in the shadow of an alleyway as one of the «Turned» wandered past. She had parted with her group about a minute ago to head down to the tower alone. Her plan was to head to the top of the structure and map out as much of the area as she could through her scope. Generating mapping data was based on line of sight and, whether it was an oversight on part of the game's programming or a standard feature of the game, what she saw through the scope of the Hecate II counted as line of sight. It was an overwhelming advantage that she exploited immediately whenever a new district opened up. Within an hour of entering a new zone, she could easily map out a square kilometer or two provided there was a tall enough structure nearby to provide an unobstructed view of the surroundings.

She was close to her destination now, but the going was slow. There were quite a few undead roaming around in this area. Silently cursing at her luck, she detoured yet again down a different alleyway to avoid a group of five enemies. It wouldn't take her long to take down these foes with the Hecate, but her plans didn't include attracting every undead within a 100 meter radius to her location. Once again, Sinon lamented her lack of a melee weapon skill. She vowed to take one the next time she reached a milestone level.

The base of the tower was, thankfully, free of enemies and Sinon quickly ducked inside. The door had been battered down which was unfortunate. It meant that an enemy could get in easily. She leaned a few of the remaining boards up against the entryway but the makeshift barrier, barely up to waist level, wouldn't last long if one of the «Turned» wanted to get inside.

She took a quick look around. The ground was filthy; debris, the skeletons of small rodents, and what appeared to be animal pellets were scattered about the wooden floor. The walls were constructed from dull gray stone and were completely windowless. The only light came from the front door and from above. There was a rail-less stone staircase along the wall which presumably led all the way to the top of the tower. Sinon followed it up cautiously to avoid slipping on the dust that had accumulated on the steps. The sound of her boots echoed loudly despite how softly she was treading; a noise that she was afraid might attract attention from something she did not want to meet face to face.

At the top of the stairs was an opening that led to a flat roof. The rusted hinge at the edge of the frame leading to the outside told her that there was once a trapdoor there. Once she brushed off the filth that covered the floor on a spot near the edge of the tower, Sinon quickly slipped the Hecate off of her shoulder and brought the scope to her eye. Then, she began to slowly scan up and down the streets, adding new roads to her mapping data of the room, but also searching for groups of players and enemies to mark down the location of. She resisted the temptation to snipe any enemies she found as it would be inconvenient for her if she attracted a crowd of «Turned» to the base of the tower. Mapping data did her no good if she wasn't able to get it to anyone else.

The smoke from the burning town obscured her visibility significantly; she was only able to map out a circular area with roughly a 1 km radius. She was just about to put her rifle away and head out to another tower she had seen at the edge of her viewing distance when she noticed someone running down the street pursued by what appeared to be a mounted archer. Bringing the Hecate II back up to firing position, she looked through the scope onto to see a very familiar looking figure.

"What the hell are you doing Kirito?" she mumbled to herself. Scanning the surrounding area, Sinon then noticed Asuna leading a group of «Melee Division» troops in the direction opposite to the one Kirito was heading in.

Sinon figured that Kirito would be able to handle the situation on his own, but just in case, she kept an eye on his progress. When he pulled some crazy stunt and jumped into the second floor of a building, she figured he must be trying to hide from the boss. After a brief moment of hesitation, she decided to take a chance and back him up with a snipe. She should be relatively safe this from the boss; it was unlikely that it could return fire at a target over half a kilometer away and 30 meters in the air. Even if it could, she would have enough time to avoid it. Lining up the shot and accounting for the effect of gravity on her bullet at this distance, she slowly squeezed the trigger.

Her shot was perfect. Through her scope, she could see her target's head snap backwards from the force of the bullet. Sinon worked the bolt of her weapon, ejecting the spent cartridge and closing it again so that the magazine would push another round into the chamber. Most people assumed her reload time was fast simply because her gun was a "modern" rifle. That was a part of it, but the real secret lay in a 7 round magazine. Of course, the Hecate only came with a single magazine so she had to manually replenish the bullets within it after using all her shots, bringing her average reload time when firing as fast as she could to about 6 seconds a bullet.

She was just about to move out to a new location when a black blur leapt out from the building near the enemy she had shot and attacked the monster once again. Immediately afterwards, he started running in her direction. Through her scope, she could plainly see him waving cheerfully in her direction—and was that a thumbs-up he just gave her? Sinon sighed and rubbed her brow with the palm of her hand. Clearly she had underestimated Kirito's determination to get himself mauled, maimed, or killed. Nonetheless, she took up a position to shoot once more and waited for a good opportunity to line up a shot. She didn't have long to wait.

The skeletal horseman chased after Kirito with single-minded determination, making it very easy for Sinon to track its motion and prepare a shot. She pulled the trigger just as it drew back the string on its bow. It was a well-placed bullet, striking the monster in the collarbone and throwing off its aim just as it released an arrow.

"You're welcome," Sinon muttered at the boy who had just stalled in the middle of the street. She didn't say it because she expected any thanks from Kirito. Sinon figured he would say, in a manner calculated to tick her off, that he had everything completely under control if she ever mentioned backing him up to his face.

The boy in question then did something that confused Sinon. With a brief downwards cast of his arm, he enveloped the area he was standing at in a dark cloud, preventing her from seeing anything. She wouldn't be able to back him up so long for fear of friendly fire so long as that smokescreen was up. Perplexed, she looked towards the edge of the cloud, expecting him to try to lose the boss and head to her position.

Instead, what happened next was something she never would have expected. An entire building collapsed and fell down into the street, pushing away the smokescreen, but replacing it with a cloud of dust and ash. It was too much to be a coincidence; Sinon figured that whatever had just happened had "Kirito's fault" written all over it. In any case, she could ask him about it shortly. The boy in question had just nonchalantly strolled out of the destruction and was now jogging towards her tower at a brisk pace.

-o-

"What? I figured it was the best way to shake the boss off my tail," Kirito said, giving a shrug. "It worked, didn't it?"

The two were talking as they ran towards another tower Sinon had marked off on her map. The first tower had given her a pretty good view of the streets below, but some areas had been obstructed by buildings and her viewing distance hadn't been enough to map out the whole room. A second high elevation area should help complete most of the important parts of the map. After a brief discussion, Kirito had declared his intention to escort her; he also turned selectively deaf when she maintained she could handle it on her own.

Sinon studied him for a moment. "Let me get this straight," she replied slowly. "Your idea of 'shaking the boss off your tail' is to drop a building on him?"

Kirito grinned. "What can I say? They ran out of bridges. That and I think I had to work off the withdrawal symptoms from missing the last boss fight. You wouldn't happen to know if it's still buried underneath all that rubble, would you? I was hoping it'd be pinned down so we could just start, you know, stabbing it until it no longer moves."

_This guy…_ Sinon didn't even know where to begin with him. Somehow he managed to make his ridiculous feats seem like the logical thing to do. It was as if he twisted the logic of this game world around just by existing. They were both survivors, able to thrive as solo players on the front, but whereas Sinon was more calculative, Kirito seemed to do just fine with instinct and determination.

Sinon shook her head. "I saw it push its way free while you were heading here. I think it was searching for you for a bit before it ran off to the south. I have no idea where it is now." There were only a hundred meters left before they reached the tower. "We're close enough now, why don't you go ahead and run along to where everyone's supposed to be gathering? Tell them I'm coming with the data in a little bit."

The boy began to laugh uproariously. "Trying to get rid of me?" he asked, wiping at the corner of his eye. "It'll be better if I stay here and guard the entrance to the tower. Try and make it fast though, I get the feeling they'll leave us behind if we take too long."

"You managed to annoy Asuna that much in five minutes?" Sinon asked incredulously. "That's a new record even for you."

"Not my fault," he said, shrugging. "All I did was mention that it might be a better idea to tackle the boss right now than wait. Reason being— I get the feeling that when Kayaba started up this death game, he removed all concept of 'reseting.' For all intents and purposes, what has been lost can never be regained."

"Do you have a point, spouting that insightful bit of philosophy?" she asked sarcastically.

"Oh come on now," Kirito said, laughing softly. "I wasn't trying to be deep or anything. What I was getting at was that this place has a semi-destructible environment, right?" Sinon nodded slowly, still not following him. "Well, what I was getting at was that if the buildings all get knocked or burned down," he concluded, "we're going to be up against a highly mobile boss on flat terrain with very little cover. I don't think everyone leaving will reset the area, either. If that's the case, it won't exactly be my idea of a fun time."

She considered his argument for a moment. It did make sense. As a sniper, she knew just how deadly ranged weaponry could get if the opponent had no way to close in on your position before you took him down. And that mount…if Sinon had a method to get away as swiftly as that—it'd practically be cheating.

"Alright, fine," Sinon replied. "I'll consider helping you convince the others. But if you'll excuse me, I have work to do. Go ahead and play rent-a-cop guard at the tower base if you want."

Kirito grinned at her roguishly. "Ouch, that hurts."

"You can handle it," Sinon said, giving him a falsely sympathetic clap on the shoulder before entering the tower. She was feeling good about getting one-up on the boy who seemed to love messing with her head when he called out after her.

"One last thing Sinon. You might want to do something about that dirty boot-print on your face."

She scowled at him before turning on her heels and entering the gloom of the tower alone. But when he was out of view, she scrubbed furiously at her face with her arm, silently cursing at Asuna. She tossed in a few choice ones for Kirito as well for throwing off her inner calm.

* * *

"Is this everyone?"

Kirito strolled into the building where the survivors from «The Army» were gathered. Sinon followed him in shortly afterwards. Despite their arriving over five minutes after the signal firework had been launched, it seemed that only half the number that had entered the boss's lair were present.

"We're assuming that a number of groups are occupied with cleaning up the zone and aren't coming anytime soon," Asuna answered.

Godfree grinned at his fellow officer as he added in a gruff voice, "In other words, they're too busy scrounging around for loot to give a damn about safety. I suppose that's why they're second-stringers."

Thinker and Yulier both frowned at this, but kept silent. They busied themselves with tending to the men from the «Melee Divisions», handing out healing supplies. Their items were accepted with grateful nods and tiredly muttered thanks. They all pointedly ignored the bound and struggling man in the corner of the room. Kibaou had been healed up, but aside from that, it seemed as if no one was willing to come to his aid.

"So what's the plan?" Kirito asked. "Still want to completely retreat while there's still people out there?"

"If you're trying to trick me into staying when we need to get these guys out immediately, Kirito-kun…" Asuna warned, her voice taking on a dangerous edge.

"Hang on Asuna," Sinon interrupted. "I don't think that's what he meant."

Kirito shot the sniper a grateful look. It was nice having support sometimes, especially when dealing with Asuna. Sometimes, he had the feeling that she singled him out just because she had nothing better to do. Whatever the case, he seemed to get into a lot of not-quite-arguments with her.

"Sinon has the mapping data for almost the entire lair," he explained. "With that, we can easily get the melee guys out with just a small group." He looked around the room to the 2 dozen clearers who were gathered. "This boss needs to go down today," he declared. "I'm sure you've experienced how dangerous those arrows can be first-hand and if you've seen the boss, you'll know that we'll never be able to run him down on foot."

"Stop wasting our time beating around the bush. You've figured something out about this fight, haven't you?" Asuna asked, slapping a hand down hard on the table they were gathered around. "Out with it."

"The destructible environment," Kirito stated. "I don't believe it'll reset even if we all leave. In the report Thinker and Yulier gave during the meeting, the town wasn't falling apart—at least not at the start. Do we really want to risk a future fight against this boss with no cover at all and the lack of convenient ambush points? At least now we have the mapping data to set up traps and choke-points. If we plan it out right, we could even pen in the boss."

Asuna stared at him challengingly. "You really believe that's the best course of action?" she asked quietly. Kirito met her gaze; he felt that fighting the boss now was the right thing to do, but Asuna seemed set on cutting the losses and retreating.

After a full minute of silence, she gave a sigh. "Alright, you all heard what 'the Black Swordsman' had to say. I'll put it up to a vote. All in favor of retreating immediately?"

The hands of every member of the Melee Divisions shot up instantly. The threat of imminent death had transformed them from potential front-liners to men who wanted nothing more to do with bosses, the undead, or «SLD».

"All in favor of Kirito-kun's suggestion?"

Surprisingly, a fair number of hands went up. There were a few exchanged glances before a couple more hands went up. Kirito did a quick count. Two dozen. Unsurprisingly, many of the players present were engaging in the popular democratic past-time of not exercising their right to vote.

"It looks like a tie," Asuna noted. She paused for a moment and glanced around before looking Kirito in the eye again. With a brief shake of her head, she raised a dainty hand up into the air. "Fine," she said reluctantly, "I'll put my trust in you." She addressed her fellow officer, "Godfree, take a few of our best and make sure you get the ones we rescued get outside safely. They should be able to make it back to town on their own from there. Get back here as soon as you can."

The giant two-handed sword wielder nodded. He quickly obtained the mapping data from Sinon and, turning to the men from the «KoB», pointed at a half-dozen of them seemingly at random. The ones he had chosen silently made their way outside. Turning to the exhausted members of «The Army», he bellowed for them to get moving. The volume coupled with the authority in his voice seemed to shake some of the tiredness out of them as they complied.

Turning to Thinker and Yulier, he said, "You should probably come along too. You two aren't half-bad in terms of skill, but your levels are a little low to guarantee your safety when we engage the boss. Besides, I would think you need to see the rescue portion of this mission to its conclusion."

Thinker nodded and followed Godfree outside, Yulier trailing closely behind. The door slammed shut behind them, creaked for a moment, and then fell outwards with a crash to the ground. Kirito barely gave it a passing glance before turning to face the people remaining. Asuna gave him a look that seemed to say, "Alright, you got us into this, _you_ take over the planning."

He scratched his head and sighed. He liked it better when he wasn't the one responsible for making decisions. Just sit back, let others do the work figuring out tactics, and adjust his actions on the fly if a fight got too out of hand. He was a swordsman, not a tactician. Playing as a solo allowed him to avoid responsibilities and yet here he was, on the frontlines with over two dozen fellow clearers looking at him for advice. Fate had a sense of humor.

"Alright, someone else is going to have to do the actual planning on how we're going to run this boss into the ground, but I have a few observations that might help us in taking it down…"

* * *

"We're lost, aren't we?"

"Shut up, kid. We're not lost."

"Then why the hell do you keep checking your map every 30 seconds?"

Phileas quickly put away the menu floating in the air in front of him with a flick of his wrist. It wasn't that they were lost, per say, but they had to keep backtracking because of obstructions in the road. By the time he and Raker had reached the spot where they had seen the firework come from, the area had already been cleared out.

"Just admit it, we're lost," Raker continued. "And the great Captain Phileas, world-renowned traveler and explorer, can't navigate his way out of a paper bag."

Phileas groaned. This kid…It wasn't fun being reminded of how bad he had been back when he was younger. He wouldn't be surprised if some jackass of a Shinto deity was watching him right now, manipulating events and proclaiming something profound about karma while laughing at him the entire time. He really needed to change religions…

"You know what?" Phileas declared, feeling the need to blow off some steam. "You're absolutely right. We're completely lost and wandering in circles. There's no food or water left. Hungry zombies are just around the corner and the boss is secretly plotting our demise as we speak. I have absolutely no idea how to get out of here while everyone else has already left and they haven't realized we're missing yet. Happy now?"

Raker grimaced. "When you put it that way, not really. Can't you be more upbeat?"

"You want upbeat? Fine, I lied about the lack of food and water. We don't actually need it," the older man replied as he peered down an alleyway for signs of movement. Nothing that he could spot, but he made his way down carefully anyways. He didn't trust his low level «Searching» skill much.

"You coming boy? I don't have all day," Phileas called back.

Raker put his arms behind his head and strolled down as carefree as if he were inside the 1st District. "If we're going to die anyways, you don't need to be in such a rush," he replied. The building behind the teen gave a groan and shuddered. With a fearful look backwards, the boy broke into a run. Gasping on the other side of the alleyway, he quickly explained his change of heart, "On the other hand, a nice brisk jog never killed anyone."

The shock of another close call, thankfully, shut the kid up for a few minutes. It wasn't until they reached what looked to be a main road that he addressed Phileas again.

"So—what's our plan?"

Phileas turned towards Raker, raising an eyebrow questioningly. "You've been following behind me for how long now? And you only just decided to ask?"

The boy shrugged and muttered, "Hey, I was distracted and not really thinking calmly."

"Story of my life, kid," Phileas replied. Several dark shapes shambled out into the street about a 150 meters away. "Looks like trouble. We're going to avoid th—hey!"

Raker had unshouldered his rifle and was moving into range to shoot. Try as he might to chase after the younger member of the «Ranged Division», Phileas couldn't catch up to him. The boy had put more points into «Agility» than he had and also, as he had mentioned earlier, was a few levels higher.

"I'm seriously getting too old for this crap," he muttered angrily to himself.

The boy took down one of the enemy swiftly, nailing a headshot from 10 meters away from the enemy. Phileas knew what Raker was planning. The teenager had a habit of shooting from a range that would allow him one reload before the enemy reached him. As expected, he was standing out in the middle of the road, completely exposed as he casually tapped a large caliber lead ball down the barrel of his rifle with a ramrod.

Raker did know what he was doing, but Phileas thought he saw the boy hesitate before pulling the trigger. That lost moment allowed one enemy from the group to lunge at him, knocking the young «Ranged Division» member to the ground. His gun went skittering across the stone road and the heads of the rest of the group of zombies turned towards the noise it made. They stumbled in the direction the weapon had went, bumping into one another in their haste to turn.

"What the hell are you doing?" Phileas shouted, finally catching up. He pulled the walking corpse off his companion and punched it in the jaw, sending it backwards a step but only doing minimal damage.

"T-that «Turned»… it's—" Raker stuttered.

Frowning, Phileas focused on the enemy for the first time rather than his guildmate. He wasn't great with faces but then again, the monster barely had anything recognizable as a face. However, the tattered outfit looked familiar; especially the broad-rimmed hat.

"That's what happens when you don't take things seriously when you have to," Phileas said pitilessly, directing his words towards both Raker and the walking corpse.

The zombie grabbed Phileas by the shoulders and made a move to bite down on his neck. The middle-aged man put a stop to it by jamming his wheel-lock pistol into his assailant's maw. The «Turned»'s head vanished as he pulled the trigger, disappearing in a cloud of smoke and prismatic sparkles. The sound from the discharge earned him the attention of the rest of the enemies in their vicinity.

"We need to go," Phileas noted, helping Raker to his feet.

"Dude—you killed him!" Raker said, looking stunned. "The two of us were chatting—fifteen minutes ago and you just shot him in the face!"

"Kid," Phileas warned. The group of zombies was closing in fast and he hadn't reloaded yet. "There's a time and place for everything. Now and talking, however, do not go together very well. You can whine and bitch to me later. For now, let's put my plan from before into action and get the hell out of here. I want to find a place where I can get a better view of the area."

Raker turned his head towards where Jessie-Jame's undead corpse spasmed on the ground. Phileas could almost see the boy's thoughts as he tried to make sense of things; the two of teens had been trading jabs not too long ago. His mind simply couldn't accept the fact that his ally was gone as reality. Almost as in response to Raker's confusion and denial, the zombie's body chose to follow its owner's head into oblivion with the sound of shattering crystal at that moment. Nodding to Phileas and looking as if he was suppressing the urge to vomit, Raker indicated that he was ready to go.

* * *

"Dammit, I told you we should have met up with the others when the signal went up!"

Sataki pushed back against the door as the enemies on the other side pounded furiously, trying to break in. Two other men from other guilds, a wiry two-handed mace wielder named Decker and a muscular gunner who went by the name of Shinta, lent their strength as well. Good thing as well, because with his primarily Agility-based build, Sataki doubted he could hold the small horde on the other side back for long.

"Hey, it could be worse. At least the door still has a ton of durability left. In a real zombie flick that flimsy thing would be battered down in a minute flat," a member of the «DDA» called out from the back of the room where he was recovering his health slowly. Despite their initial claims that they would work by themselves as a guild, it seemed that a few members of the «DDA» had gotten separated from their party members. It was too dangerous to move about alone, so they had sought out the closest party, which had been Sataki's.

Things weren't going very well. They had started to run low on healing supplies a while back and decided amongst themselves that they would save the remainder for life-threatening emergencies only. For now, anyone with over 30% health had to sit still out of view of the windows to avoid getting hit by a random shot from the boss and out of combat in order to heal up. The rest, such as Sataki, were in charge of keeping the undead at bay. Although the door itself was holding out, each time the living dead on the other side collided into the barrier, a small portion of damage was transferred to the people on the other side. It was a matter of time before the horde outside wore them out or battered the door down. By rotating the players who pushed back, they had managed to keep the enemy from getting inside so far.

"Do you smell something?" Sataki asked, sniffing the air. There was a putrid, smoky scent in the air which reminded him of the time his sister had tried her hand at cooking.

One recovering members of the group chanced a look outside the window. He immediately stuck his head back inside to avoid the grasping hands just outside. "You just had to open your mouth, Jin," he exclaimed sarcastically. "It's now 'worse.' Our roof just caught fire."

Everyone began to panic. Between the undead just outside and the roof that would eventually collapse down on them, their future prospects looked bleak. The terror was contagious and had soon reduced the half of the players who were recovering into shivering wrecks. Not that Sataki could blame them, seeing as they were the "closest to death" based on their health bars. Still, the atmosphere was beginning to get to him.

In a move inspired by Sinon, he fired his rifle upwards into the ceiling, jarring everyone to their senses with the noise. A voice inside his head chuckled wryly at how he was mimicking the actions of a teenage girl in order to calm his nerves and restore order. At that moment, another shove from behind as the «Turned» on the other side pressed against the door sent him stumbling a step forwards.

Pretending to be calm as he mentally commanded his heart to stop threatening to burst out of his chest, Sataki righted himself and spoke. "Panicking won't help us here. We need to stay calm and think of a way out of this."

"A way out? You've got to be kidding. Have you seen how many undead there are outside? They're all clearer-class «Turned» too! And if they don't get us, the building's going to collapse and do the work for them!"

"There's always a way out," Sataki insisted. "No matter how desperate the situation, there's always a solution. I refuse to believe otherwise." He glared at everyone present. "Even if you're second-stringers, even if you don't believe in your own abilities; you're frontliners. Act like it!"

His words jolted the men to their senses. At the very least, they seemed to calm down a bit. Sataki, however, felt more nervous than ever. It was as if he had taken all their fears into himself. He felt queasy, his stomach churning due to his anxiety. Why the hell were they all looking at him expectantly now? He had only wanted to get them to quit with the defeatist talk because it was driving him insane. He wasn't cut out for leadership. Sataki turned to the man next to him, opening his mouth with the intent to pass the burden of command to him instead.

"What's the plan?" the man, Decker, asked before Sataki could speak. He, too, was looking at him as if he expected an answer.

_Shit…_

Sataki scratched his head and sat down with a sigh. Leading was a pain in the ass, one of the reasons why he hadn't taken charge when the «Ranged Division» had lacked direction. It was just so much easier to let someone else do the thinking and issuing of orders. It also meant he didn't have to worry about screwing up and getting people eaten by a horde of hungry dead. Sataki was almost certain that Phileas was the same way. He suspected the old man was more used to giving commands than he let on.

"Alright, let's take an inventory," he finally said, chastising himself mentally. "Do we have anything that might be able to disorient the undead or cloak us if we make a break for it?"

Everyone except for those holding the door shut searched through their inventories. Almost a dozen menus glowed in the air, lighting the room as well as torches would have done. Eyes quickly scanned through list after list, seeking a miracle.

"Nothing but junk. A bit of food, a player-written guide, and a small bit of leftover gunpowder from crafting."

"Sheesh, I need to stop being such a packrat—got some candy, a hammer, a pair of pliers, shears…I thought I got rid of this already!"

This went on for almost a full minute before Sataki heard something that drew his attention. Turning to the young «DDA» warrior who had just rattled off a bunch of item names under his breath, he exclaimed, "Wait…you had fireworks with you? Why the hell didn't you say so earlier?"

"I didn't even know I had them with me," he protested. "Besides, what we would do with them anyways? They're just cosmetic items."

Sataki hit his head against the wall with a soft thud to let some of his frustration out. Chuckling madly, he answered, "Didn't you listen when we first came in here? We can use red ones to signal for help. We didn't have to be stuck in here terrified out of our wits this whole time." He felt something snap inside of him as he began to laugh.

"And what if they've already left?" the boy asked nervously, shuffling his feet as he stood up to face Sataki. "What if no one comes to help us?"

"Then you'd better make your peace, because the only damn alternative strategy I can think of is to mount a full-force push to try to break free of this place," Sataki replied, a roguish grin creeping across his face. He didn't think it would come to that though and the news that they could call for help was the best he had heard since entering this hellhole.

* * *

Sinon was helping set up an ambush point when a massive explosion shook the street beneath her. A few fireworks detonated in the sky, painting the town with a veritable rainbow of colors for one brief and thunderous moment. The majority of the explosions seemed centered at ground level, sending a jet of sparks just above the rooftops.

"Sounds like someone might be in trouble," Kirito noted. He clapped his hands together a few times to shake the dust off. "Want to go check it out?"

"Not really," Sinon replied, checking over the wreckage they had moved to create a barrier in the middle of the road. Stretching across the entire street and measuring over 5 meters in height, it wasn't meant to be a fortification. Its purpose was to prevent the enemy boss from fleeing in this direction.

"Aw, come on," Kirito said in a mockingly pleading voice. "You know you want to…"

"Can't say that I do," Sinon replied. Kirito looked at her doubtfully, his eyes glinting the way they had always done in the early days of the death game. "Alright, fine," she said after a moment, "I'll go with you if you insist. It'd leave a bad taste in my mouth if I found out some idiot ended up getting killed over there."

Kirito grinned at her, "I knew you couldn't resist. We'll make a hero of justice out of you yet."

"The idiot I was talking about was _you_," Sinon snapped at him. "I still haven't paid you back yet that stunt you pulled. Need to keep you alive until I get the opportunity to show you what getting stomped on the face feels like."

Kirito laughed before shouting to the others nearby that he was going to check out the commotion. He spun around and sprinted off, the tail of his coat billowing out behind him. Sinon checked to make sure her gun was fully loaded before running after him. A few others from the group followed after her, their figures getting smaller as she left them behind in the dust.

-o-

Kirito was already at work when Sinon caught up to him. Spinning about in a black blur, he sliced through the neck of one enemy before flipping his sword around to a reverse-grip and impaling the same foe through the stomach with a backwards-aimed stab. His target gave a feeble groan before collapsing to the ground.

"Yo," he greeted. "What took you so long?"

Sinon met his cheerful salutation with a glare. Unshouldering her weapon, she ignored the boy, took aim over his shoulder, awaited the moment when the targeting circle was smallest, and pulled the trigger. The shot caught another «Turned» right in the face.

"Tch," Sinon clicked her tongue. She had been hoping to shake Kirito up a little with that shot but he remained completely calm, turning around rapidly to casually deflect a blow before lopping off his assailant's arm at the shoulder with an upwards slash. She ejected the empty bullet casing and reloaded. Aiming carefully, she annihilated both that target and the one behind it, the bullet blowing a gaping hole through the torso of the first and striking the second with enough force to knock it to the floor. No matter how heavily armored the zombies were, a round from a weapon designed to take down modern armored vehicles would punch through that protection easily.

There was a commotion from the other side of the undead horde and light from their «Death Effects» told Sinon that another group of fighters had also decided to come to the aid of whomever had launched the earlier distress signal. She would have to be careful not to hit one of them accidentally through over-penetrating a target.

The sound of footsteps behind her told her that the frontliners who had been in her group had finally caught up. Almost on cue, a ripple passed through the enemy crowd as the door to the house they had been besieging opened and a barrage of gunfire sounded from within. With an assortment of battlecries, a group of about a half dozen armored players charged outside and fanned out into the gap created by the volley, forming a defensive half-circle. Caught between three fronts, the sizeable crowd of undead thinned out quickly and was completely wiped out in a matter of minutes.

"Why am I not surprised to find you here, Kirito-kun?"

It seemed Asuna had been the one to lead the assault from the other side. She pointed a finger at Kirito as she continued, "Did you finish setting up your area already? I don't need to remind you that trying to kill the boss now was _your_ idea, do I?"

"Nice to see you too, Asuna," Kirito replied, ignoring the «KoB» officer's slightly combative tone as he sheathed his sword on his back. "Despite your hatred of reckless heroics, it seems like you got here in a hurry."

She puffed up indignantly and opened her mouth to speak. Then, as if reconsidering, Asuna made a point of ignoring the swordsman and turned instead to Sinon. She gave her a curt bow and said, "I know he probably troubled you and dragged you into this. Since he obviously has no regard for manners, I feel obligated to apologize on his behalf." Her overly formal tone was an obvious dig at the Black Swordsman.

"Ah—it was—," Sinon began. There was no right answer. Agreeing would her friend would only encourage her to chew out Kirito while disagreeing might be considered a minor betrayal.

A hard smack on her back knocked her off-balance. Turning around, Sinon was confronted by Sataki's broad smile. She hadn't noticed him earlier despite him being a part of her division. Maybe it was because he didn't have any features that made him stand out. Still, she felt a little bad about it.

"I thought that first gunshot sounded familiar," he said in a friendly tone. "Thanks for the assist, we were in a pretty bad spot."

The building Sataki's group had been taking refuge in chose that moment to begin creaking. The flames had engulfed the entire second story and tongues of fire were flickering out of the windows. The clearers eyed the place warily before moving a few meters further down the road as a precaution.

After she got their attention, Asuna began to fill the men they had rescued in on the details of the plan. Sinon noted that they were hanging on the girl's every word as if their lives depended on it. Perhaps their near-death experience had corrected the carefree attitude many of them displayed at the start of the expedition. Only time could tell.

"If there aren't any questions, we'll break off back into our groups," Asuna said. "Decide on who your leader is going to be, I'll give him a stash of fireworks for signaling purposes since it seems like you lot pretty much burned through all the ones you had."

One of the youngest members of the rescued party grinned sheepishly. He muttered something about the instructions in the item description being poorly worded. A quick vote was taken and, to Sinon's surprise, Sataki was unanimously (with one exception) voted as the party leader. He protested loudly that he didn't want the position.

"Shut up," a «DDA» member joked. "The only guy who didn't vote for you was—you. Your objection is overruled. Face your fate like a man."

"I guess that's that," Sataki grumbled to Sinon as they began to split up and head to their positions. "You sure I can't convince you to take my place here?"

Sinon gave him a sympathetic pat on the back. "Have fun," she replied. "Maybe if you're lucky, they won't be as much trouble as you lot were the first few days I was with you guys." She ran off after Kirito who had already disappeared around the corner. Looking back, she met Asuna's gaze and mouthed the words, "Don't worry, I'll make sure to keep him out of trouble for your sake." In her mind's eye, she imagined her friend's face taking on a faint red hue.

* * *

"So that's what they're planning…"

Raker stood by idly as Phileas peered through a small brass telescope at the top of the tower. It was one of four identical towers placed in the cardinal directions around the town center. Phileas had chosen to head to the southern tower because it was closest. Trying hard to look casual as he ignored how high up in the air they were, the boy muttered about how this was a waste of time. The older man ignored his complaints and waved for him to come over, handing Raker the telescope.

"Tell me what you see," he said, "Your eyes are better than mine are."

"That's a load of bull. The Nerve Gear doesn't take your real-life vision into account." Raker grumbled some more but complied. "I see a bunch of people moving around a lot of debris. What the hell are they doing? You know, if there're people out there, we should just meet up with them already, shouldn't we?" He handed the telescope back to Phileas. Then, he chanced another peek over the edge of the tower and was instantly seized by a sense of vertigo.

"Fool," his companion replied. "They're obviously going to try to corner the boss. It makes a good deal of sense too, considering how mobile it seems to be." The two had seen the skeletal figure blazing down a street atop its mount from their vantage point a little while earlier. "Learn to use your head and think about what you're seeing, kid."

"Gah! I'm sick of being called kid by you already! Use my damn name," Raker complained, moving away from the edge of the tower. They were pretty damn high up in the air. "And what does it matter if I don't care about that kind of thing? All I need to do is follow orders, stay alive, and shoot things, not necessarily in that order."

"Look kid," Phileas began, earning him a glare from Raker. Unlike Sinon, Raker's glares seemed to be completely ineffective. He'd have to work on that, it was embarrassing to be outdone by a girl several years his junior and a full head shorter. "You're at that time of your life where you'll end up making a lot of mistakes. Some you can laugh off, some you might regret for years—but others are a whole lot more permanent. Especially in this completely fucking insane deathtrap we're all stuck in." The old man sighed melancholically. "I don't mean to be this hard on you, but you remind me too much of myself when I was your age to sit back idly and watch things unfold."

Raker chuckled grimly and snarked, "What century was that in?" Though, truth be told, he felt that _this_ Phileas was a whole lot easier to be around than the one who unhesitatingly blew the heads off of zombies and watched buildings collapse on top of people without flinching.

"The 20th, actually," he answered dryly. "Great time to be a know-it-all brat thinking he was invincible and couldn't do wrong."

Phileas sat down, letting out an exhausted sounding grunt as he did so. The old man set the telescope and his weapon, a crossbow, down beside him before indicating that Raker should sit down and make himself more comfortable as well.

"I did a bunch of stupid things when I was your age," he began. "You probably wouldn't be able to guess how bad I was back then. Thing is, everybody makes mistakes and embarrasses themselves from time to time. But you and me, we're the type that put them all to shame in that department."

"Speak for yourself!" Raker protested. "I'm perfectly fine as I am!"

Phileas chuckled and shook his head. "No doubt. But stop and think for a moment: If you didn't have someone to watch your back today, do you think you'd still be alive?"

Raker considered the man's question. Between the building that had almost collapsed on top of him and his hesitation in killing that «Turned» just because it was someone he had known for a few minutes… The old man had a point. He probably would have died at least 3 times today. Not that Phileas would ever hear a thanks coming from his lips for it. Thankfully, the geezer didn't seem to expect any either.

In any case, the eldest member of the «Ranged Division» seemed to have picked up on Raker's thoughts, because he continued, "As long as you have someone to watch your back, it's alright to be reckless and act like an idiot from time to time. Hell, I myself ran away from home after getting in an argument with my parents when I was about your age."

"Oy, old man, don't get sentimental on me now," Raker said. "Last thing I need is to drag a senile old coot like yourself back to the «Black Iron Castle» with undead crawling all around this area." Phileas slapped him in the back of the head lightly, causing the boy to rub his head and complain, "Ow! Hey, I was serious!"

"So was I," Phileas remarked. "I told you that you reminded me of myself. Part of that has to do with our situation. You're stuck here in another world without any friends from the real world around as far as I can tell. Me, I ran away, lied about my age, and got a job on a freight carrier. Ended up getting ship-jacked by some pirates out at sea somewhere offshore of Africa."

"Oh come on," Raker groaned. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Nope," the old man grinned, showing mirth for the first time in a long while. It felt almost like they were back inside the safety of the guild base. "Ended up having to travel across half the continent with just a canteen, the clothes on my back, and a knife that I pickpocketed off one of the guys who hijacked our ship before stranding us on an island just off the coast."

Raker had no doubt that his face was one of disbelief as Phileas laughed and continued his tale. "Where did you think my travel stories came from? Anyways, I was pretty much forced to join a mercenary unit in order to eat, having no real skills that I could sell. I learned a lot during that time, but also saw quite a few things I wish I hadn't. That's why I was actually glad when you were unable to pull the trigger on that chatterbox-turned-zombie."

"Glad? I thought you were pissed as hell!" Raker exclaimed. "You sure didn't sound that way back there."

Phileas shrugged, "Naïve as you are and harsh as this world is, what you did wasn't wrong, even if it could have gotten you killed. The moment you become willing to kill someone you see as human for any reason, to be directly responsible for ending a life, you lose a bit of yourself."

Raker got up and kicked Phileas in the shin. It shouldn't have hurt, but the boy found it rather amusing how the usually implacable "Captain" clutched at his leg as if it had.

"Guh! What the hell was that for?" the older man exclaimed indignantly. "Didn't your parents ever teach you to respect your elders or has that lesson never penetrated your thick skull?"

"You're seriously creeping me out," Raker replied. "Really, if you're going senile, can you do me a favor and wait until we're out of here before you break down? That philosophical bullshit you were spouting back there?" Raker made a sweeping gesture above his head with his right hand. "Yeah— didn't get any of it."

Phileas stared at him wordlessly for a moment, then began to chuckle. "Right," he answered, shaking with mirth. "I guess I never did expect you to get it. Well, just consider it payback for all the whining I had to put up with from you." He stood up and walked to the edge of the tower, bringing his telescope back up to his eye. "Well, wouldya look at that; looks like they're finally ready. And the closest group is—" Suddenly, he burst out in laughter.

"What is it?"

Phileas shook his head. "You'll find out when we get there," he answered vaguely. "But it looks like I'm not the only one saddled with babysitting duty."

"What did you mean by—" Raker shouted indignantly. "Hey! Geezer! I'm not through talking to you dammit!"

The boy popped open the trapdoor that had closed behind his senior and rushed to catch up.

* * *

"Fire!"

Kirito covered his ears as a half-dozen ranged fighters leaned out the windows of the surrounding buildings and opened fire. Of them, only one wasn't using a firearm, choosing to use a crossbow instead. From the red tracer line that accompanied every projectile, he noted that two shots were a complete miss; one passing below the enemy and striking the street while the other passed harmlessly to the side of the boss as it rode towards the melee group stationed in the middle of the road.

"You guys ready?" Kirito asked, dropping into a ready stance, his hand reaching over his shoulder and gripping the haft of his weapon.

"Can I say no?" a slightly older teenage boy replied nervously as he readied his spear. "They never told me how freaking scary cavalry is."

Kirito snorted. "At least this one is ranged cavalry. If it had a lance, I'd be the first to get the hell out of its way."

There was no more time for idle banter as the boss had closed the distance to them by half. The goal was to deal enough damage to force it into a retreat and make it travel in a direction which would lead to one of the many dead ends they had constructed. Dodging to the side, Kirito unleashed the first hit of «Horizontal Square», leaving a gaping red gash in the side of the skeletal mount's flank. «The White Rider»'s momentum carried it forwards enough so that Kirito's second strike came from behind, slicing neatly across its mount's upper shins.

At this point, the boss stalled in its charge, leaving it vulnerable to attack; an opportunity that two spear-users seized upon as they flanked their target and thrust with their weapons. As soon as they recovered, the two retreated; and just in time. Kirito had completed the third swing of «Horizontal Square», mirroring the wound he had caused on the other side, and had just maneuvered to the front of the boss to deliver the final blow. The enemy reared up on its hind legs as Kirito struck, front legs kicking out at him. Moments before he would have been hit, a loud gunshot, easily recognizable as Sinon's even though Kirito couldn't see her, rang out and caused the boss to rear his mount up even more. Kirito recovered from the momentary stun at the end of his skill use in time to avoid the horse's hooves as they slammed down where he had been standing.

"Nice timing, Sinon," Kirito shouted gratefully as he retreated behind the line of more heavily armored melee. Being hit would have meant losing a bit of health, probably not enough to be considered dangerous, but enough to make him lose some time in recovering health with a potion just as a precaution. Time they could ill afford to waste if they wanted to pummel the boss into a retreat.

Kirito stared straight at the boss and it stared back at him, eyes glinting as it recognized him as the annoyance that had led it on a merry chase earlier before dropping a building atop it. He had just enough time to think 'Oh crap" when it completely ignored all the gunfire aimed at it, bypassed the shield-bearers, and went straight for him.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Kirito exclaimed, leaping to the side to avoid being trampled. He quickly got up to find a red beam pointing straight at his chest. "Dammit! What did I ever do to you?" he asked rhetorically as he swung his sword upwards while tilting his head. The spear-like projectile flew past his face, the fletching actually brushing across his cheek as it went by.

"Hey Kirito! It looks like you've made a friend," a girl's voice called out. "Why don't you go ahead and lead him to the trap?"

"Oy…Sinon," Kirito shouted back, quickly glancing at the window the sniper had called out from before returning his attention to the boss. "You're enjoying this a bit too much, aren't you? Kinda in a tight spot here."

"Nonsense," Sinon retorted, sounding as calm as usual. "Why would I ever savor the sight of the always unflappable and cool-acting Black Swordsman in such a position? You're tough enough to handle it, right?"

Well, her words were one thing, but at least her actions were another. The Hecate roared once more and struck the boss right above the eye-socket, chipping a shard of bone off. The boss's health bar moved noticeably. It was now down to about a third on its fourth bar. Dropping a burning house on top of it had dealt almost a full bar's worth of damage before it managed to free itself. Kirito looked around quickly for another building he might be able to try that trick with again. Then he reconsidered. It was a stupid idea. He had almost gotten himself killed the first time and right now, it seemed that his antics had triggered some sort of "kill on sight" programming in the boss.

"I don't suppose we can…" Kirito swung his sword with a grunt as the boss charged past, trying to trample him into the cobblestones again. "Talk things out…can we?"

The White Rider turned around and glared at him with fierce eyes which told him exactly how stupid his proposition was. "Negotiations…failed—as expected, I guess," Kirito muttered. He slipped on his most brazen smile and readied his sword once more, nodding to the melee troops behind the boss and indicating they should move in. "Ah whatever! It's more interesting this way anyway!"

He narrowed his eyes, focusing every ounce of his concentration on the boss. Although the boss snatched an arrow, nocked it, and readied its bow in the span of a heartbeat, Kirito saw every movement. A red beam appeared, pointing straight at his shoulder. With that as his signal, he unleashed his attack.

With a roar, Kirito charged forwards, his blade leaving a green trail as it shot forwards. One-handed Sword Skill, «Sonic Leap», a charging attack which closed the distance between the swordsman and the mounted archer in a split-second.

Up until now, there had been very few enemies with ranged attacks, but all members of the front-liners would have encountered them before. Assuming the behavioral pattern was similar between the «Osseous Archers» and their variants found from the 13th District onwards and this boss, it would take a moment before it was able to adjust to the sudden change in distance between itself and its target. Against a single ranged enemy, it was possible to confuse it by constantly charging and retreating: With time, it would be able to adjust accordingly, but most normal monsters would be long since dead before reaching that point. With multiple ranged enemies, it was better to run if alone unless one wanted to test out whether one's armor could prevent one from becoming a pincushion.

The trick was to be unpredictable. Despite the complex behaviors enemies were programmed with in «SLD», they still relied on that programming to tell them what action to take. Chaos was the key to staying alive; Kirito was confident in his ability to generate chaos.

He lowered his stance once again and faked another charge towards the boss while it was momentarily distracted by the shield-bearers moving in and slicing apart its hindquarters. He changed course as the mount reared up, front legs kicking towards him, and dashed into the nearest building and up to the second floor. Chancing a peek out the window, Kirito noticed the boss looking for him, bow at the ready.

Although most of its attention was focused on finding him, that didn't mean the melee fighters below were able to relax. One shield-bearer, getting complacent since he wasn't the main target, was sent sprawling as the skeletal mount kicked out with its rear legs. From his vantage point, it looked to Kirito as if that player would be alright. His health had gone down to about 70% from that hit, but he wasn't in any real danger as the boss wasn't focusing on him at the moment.

A loud gunshot rang out from the floor above him, prompting Kirito to grin. He hadn't realized it when he had ducked inside, but he had coincidentally ended up in the same building Sinon was using as her sniper's nest. Unable to resist, he headed up the stairs to the next level.

"Yo, Sinon! Hard at work?" Kirito asked as soon as he reached the top floor.

The girl he was addressing was crouched by an open window with her back to the wall, using a mirror in order to look outside without exposing herself to attack. At his words, she immediately set the mirror down on the floor and favored him with a cold glare.

"Shouldn't you be outside? You know…doing your job and swinging that blade of yours around like a barbarian?"

"Even barbarians know when it's better to lay low for a while," Kirito answered. "Besides, can't I drop in on a friend occasionally?" He gave a shrug to emphasize his words.

Sinon snorted. "We're not friends. Just…acquaintances with a common goal, similar traits and mentality, as well as a knack for getting on each other's nerves in a somewhat good-humored way."

"Sounds like friends to me," Kirito said decisively. The sniper gave him an odd look before returning to her task and firing another round outside. "Did the boss switch to another target yet?"

"It did," the girl replied offhandedly, peering through her scope. "They're getting their butts handed to them out there." She winced as a thud sounded from outside. "That was one of the lancers getting kicked halfway across the street. Looks like he's still alive though. At this rate, the shield bearers will get chipped down before they have a chance to recuperate. And once that happens—well, let's just say the rest of the melee won't be able to avoid being skewered by arrows."

"Those arrows can be deflected," Kirito replied. "It just takes a little bit of concentration to get the timing down."

He was surprised when, at his words, Sinon actually stowed her gun away and abandoned her post, walking straight up to him. Glaring up at him with icy eyes, the sniper made him feel as if _he_ were the one who was half a head shorter. She poked him in the chest hard and, thinking it over, poked him once more for good measure.

"Listen. You're the only person I know who's insane enough to even try a stunt like that. A slight miscalculation in the timing and anyone trying to duplicate that lunacy is going to learn exactly what having a rusty two meter pole stuck through them feels like," she exclaimed. Sinon didn't seem angry with him, just exasperated. "Normal people," she continued, stressing the word "normal" like it was supposed to be important, "would try to get out of the way or hide behind something."

"Well, even abnormal people would want to run and hide when you're glaring at them like that," Kirito muttered.

"What was that?"

The look on the young sniper's face took on an even more menacing quality. Kirito cursed to himself; she had better ears than he had thought. "Nothing at all," he said quickly. Then, chuckling nervously, he added, "I'd better head on out. Don't want to distract you from your task for too long…"

Getting away sounded good to him right now. The Black Swordsman didn't like the sound of the words "running away." Strategic retreat, falling back to a more defensible position, and "get the hell out of there before the second girl he managed to annoy today decided to get together with the first and make his life a living nightmare" were all better-sounding alternatives inside his head.

The boss immediately turned towards Kirito as he exited the building. He had heard that skulls always look like they were grinning, but the expression «The White Rider» seemed to be giving off took that to a whole new level.

"I just can't seem to catch a break, can I?" Kirito said as he drew his sword from his back. All things considered, he felt less threatened right now than he had a few moments ago. He charged the boss, diving into the fray once more.

* * *

"Let's move! Hurry up and get in formation. The signal said the boss is heading our way!"

Sataki shook his head as a half-dozen men moved into position with an almost carefree slowness. One wouldn't think that they had stared death in the face less than half an hour ago based on their performance now. Really…why did he agree to lead them again? It must have been momentary insanity or something in the air. He could always blame the adrenaline rush from still being alive under the current circumstances as well.

"Looks like you're doing well!"

A hearty slap on the back sent him stumbling forwards two steps. Sataki turned around and greeted his comrades in the Ranged Division with a broad smile.

"Phileas-san, Raker…You guys didn't leave yet?" Sataki asked, truly glad to see familiar faces. Maybe he could get the more experienced Ranged Division member to take over his leadership position in this group. "In that case, why don't you—"

"Nope, that's your job, young man," Phileas answered before he could finish.

Sataki raised an eyebrow. "I hadn't even asked yet."

"You had the look of a mid-level manager about to pass the work onto your underlings," the older man replied with a chuckle as he scratched his bearded face. "I've seen that expression enough times to know what it means."

"Tch, fine," Sataki said. Oddly enough, he didn't feel too disappointed. "Since you're here, why don't you two join the ranged guys behind the shield wall?"

Raker looked over the area Sataki had set up. "This looks like something out of a history book," he noted. "I don't think anyone's made use of lines of riflemen like this in centuries." The boy glared at his seniors. "What's with that look? I paid attention in class…when they go over interesting things at least."

Sataki scratched his head and grinned. "Is that so? Well, you're right about the history thing—I got the idea from some period dramas. But it looked like a pretty effective way of organizing them since we're all stuck using these guns." He hefted his flintlock rifle and gave it an affectionate pat on the stock.

"Not a good idea," Phileas said simply. He pointed at the line of shieldbearers. "It's better to station the ranged players behind actual cover. Your tactic worked well in the early age of firearms because low accuracy meant firing in large volleys was the only real way to hit things and deal damage. Accuracy here is less about luck, unless your name is Raker." The teen shot him a resentful look which went completely ignored. "Don't forget that the boss is using a bow. Shields are meaningless if it decides to just arc its shots over the heads of your defensive line."

"Sounds reasonable—you seem to know a lot about this, Phileas-san," Sataki remarked. "You sure you don't want to—"

"I've worked hard enough keeping _someone_ out of trouble today already," the old man replied, prompting Raker to protest. "Keep at it young man. Who knows? You might find that you like being in command."

A cry of "it's here!" caused Sataki to focus on the men at the defensive line. There was a clatter as the men brought their shields up into position, locking them together to form what was, Sataki hoped, an impassable barrier.

"Ranged! Change of plans, find some cover—quickly! You can fire when you get a good shot but more importantly, duck out of the way if you get targeted!"

They moved swiftly although Sataki couldn't tell whether they were really motivated by his leadership or if they were fueled by fear. He hoped it wasn't the latter; his own knees were shaking at the thought of having to lead these men into battle with the boss. Some, however, did not share his nervousness.

"Time to kick some ass!" one gleeful gunner called out as he ran past Sataki and gave them all a "V for victory."

Sataki groaned before turning to the other two members of his division. "Aren't you guys going to find a safer spot? You were the one who suggested it, Phileas."

There was a resounding crash from the front as the boss rammed into the wall of shields. Despite its overwhelming height advantage, the monster didn't jump over the barrier like Sataki had feared it might. Perhaps it wasn't programmed to do so. From a game-designer perspective, it made a little bit of sense; giving a boss _too_ many advantages would make a battle unwinnable. From what he had observed, Kayaba, madman though he was, had created a harsh world, but also a fair one.

Sataki brought his rifle up to bear, pressing his cheek up against the polished wood of the stock in order to look down the sight. A red circle formed in his field of vision. Grinning, he remembered the lesson Sinon had taught him the first day she had come in to the «Ranged Division» shooting gallery and adjusted his aim so that none of the red circle overlapped with his men out front.

"Ready—Fire at will!" he shouted as loudly as he could.

The sound of gunfire exploded around him, not as a single volley, but staggered as the gunners each took their time to line up their shots. Sataki quickly ducked behind a tree and began to reload. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Raker do the same. Setting the ramrod back in place under the barrel of his gun, Sataki took a half-turning step out and aimed as quickly as he could. His heart-rate had increased, making it more difficult to shoot as the targeting circle kept pulsating in time with his heartbeats, but he managed to strike the boss in the chest.

"So far so good," he muttered.

The boss readied an arrow and returned fire, barely missing Raker as the boy rolled out of the way. The teenager stood up, gave the monster the middle finger, and pulled the trigger on his gun. He then ran out of sight more quickly than Sataki had ever seen him do before.

As the fighting raged on, the ranged members exchanging fire with the boss while the melee kept the enemy at bay, Sataki's aim grew steadily worse. The combination of fighting and the nagging thought that something was going to go wrong made it progressively more difficult to focus on shooting. He paid for his inattention when he barely avoided an arrow that was aimed at him. The shot hit him, cutting a gaping red gash along the outside of his right thigh and taking off a third of his health instantly. It wasn't a well-aimed shot, but it still did a lot of damage.

"Yo, you alright there?" Raker called out.

"I'm fine," Sataki replied through gritted teeth. He returned to reloading his weapon and took aim. His shot went completely off target and struck the side of a building to the side of «The White Rider». Cursing to himself and ducking behind the rubble of a fallen building for cover, he began to reload. As he did so, he noticed that his health had gone down. His hp was ticking down with each passing second. A small icon by his health bar showed a status debuff, a bleed. Sataki's blood ran cold.

He fumbled around in his pouch for a potion. Bullets…more bullets…gunpowder…Shit! He didn't have any left for himself after distributing them to the melee group, thinking they would need those most. If this was the real world, sweat would be beading on his forehead and dripping down the side of his cheek. As it was, his face was turning ashen as his health bar turned yellow. Something clattered to the ground and with a start, Sataki realized he had dropped his gun.

The bleed effect was slowly taking his health away.

His heart beat faster and he stared at the floor without moving. His rifle slid in and out of focus.

His hp dipped lower…

His mind ran in circles. He had no items to replenish his health or normalize his status.

The bleeding wasn't stopping…

He was going to die. He was going to die. He was going to die… Those thoughts looped through his head as his health ticked lower and lower. No one was going to save him. Even if his party members noticed his health dropping, he had grouped with the men at the front; they couldn't break formation to help him without giving the boss an opening to break through. And if it broke through here, it would be freed from the trap they had set for it and more people would die as a result.

His health dipped below 25%; the warning noise starting up inside of his head. Sataki considered shouting for help…no, none of the men inside the buildings would reach him in time.

How was he going to be able to face his wife after this? Sataki wondered why that thought flitted through his head; if he was dead, facing his wife wasn't going to be an issue. This was just supposed to have been a short dive into a virtual world with some friends from real life. They had died shortly after the game had begun. Part of his mind had always denied the fact that if you died here, you died in reality as well. What else could he think? He didn't want to accept that they were gone forever. But here he was now, staring at the health bar slowly draining away at the top corner of his vision; mocking him. Could he continue denying what Kayaba Akihiko had said on the first day when it was his life on the line?

Something clicked inside of him. He was going to die. There was nothing he could do about it at this point. All of a sudden, his vision seemed to zoom in on one object in particular. His gun. He had time for one last shot. One final act of defiance against this world and against Kayaba Akihiko.

Sataki picked up his weapon and took aim, his mind strangely focused and clear. Was it because he had accepted the inevitable? The targeting circle shrank more than it had ever done for him, down to a fist-sized bead centered on «The White Rider»'s head. His finger tightened on the trigger…

"You fucking moron!"

A strong blow to the side of the face sent Sataki sprawling to the ground. Phileas stood over him, rage contorting and adding more lines to his already wrinkled face. In his earlier tunnel-visioned state, Sataki had not noticed him approaching at all. The senior frontliner's player indicator had turned from green to orange, but that wasn't an important issue in Sataki's mind at the moment.

Phileas tossed an object to him. "Drink it," he ordered.

Sataki looked down at the glass vial sitting on his lap. The bright red liquid sloshing about inside was the most beautiful sight he had seen in his life. Uncorking it, he took a deep quaff of the contents, grimacing slightly at the bitter taste; Phileas was the type that claimed medicine should be bitter and added something to his potions which changed the taste. Sataki took a peek at hi health bar. The debuff was still there, but the rate of health gain from the potion had balanced out the health loss; until the potion's effect wore off, he would remain in this world and amongst the living.

"There was no point in giving me that," Sataki told Phileas as he got to his feet, "You only prolonged the inevitable. You should have saved it for someone who could use it more."

Truth be told, he felt a little annoyed at Phileas. He had just finished accepting his mortality and this guy just comes by and offers him a brief respite. Something nagged at him in the back of his mind, but it was the older man who gave voice to those thoughts.

"Then why the hell did you drink it?" Phileas asked gruffly. "Seems to me like you don't want to turn into one of those shambling undead types. Now stay still…I'm going to see if whoever programmed this stupid piece of crap took into consideration real-world medical practice."

Phileas took out a length of cloth and another object which looked like a lead pipe from his inventory. He quickly tied the ends of the cloth together and walked over to Sataki. "Sit down," he ordered. Without waiting for a response, he pressed down on Sataki's shoulders and forced him to sit.

"What are you pla—?" Sataki began to ask. He gave a grunt as Phileas slipped the cloth loop over his leg and used the pipe to wind the excess length down. Sataki felt the cloth squeezing down on his thigh above where he was injured; it didn't hurt, but the pressure was strong enough that he could no longer feel his leg below where it was wrapped.

"It's a tourniquet," Phileas explained. "Keep a hand on that pipe to keep the pressure on it and let me know if you still have that bleed on you."

Sataki glanced over at his health bar again. The debuff icon was still there, but it was grayed out. Presumably it would start up again if he loosened the tourniquet. He tried to stand up, but found it nearly impossible to do so with his leg tied up. In fact, it was almost as if he didn't have that leg at all.

"Kid—get over here and make yourself useful," Phileas ordered, waving Raker over.

"Old-timer, I *am* being useful. Dealing damage and sticking with the plan," Raker shouted back. As if to prove his point, he took another potshot at the boss, missing spectacularly in his haste.

"Get your ass over here," Phileas retorted. "Your accuracy sucks anyways."

"Fine!" the boy replied, sounding aggravated. He jogged over to where Sataki was and helped him to his feet. "Need me to babysit him as well, old man?"

"You said it," Phileas replied, pointing to a nearby building. "Take shelter in there and try to stay away from the windows. I don't exactly have enough materials to make many more of those if you get hit as well."

"What about leading?" Sataki protested. "I need to—"

"You can do that from _inside_ the building," Phileas cut him off. "I'm sure the men won't mind under the circumstances. As the leader of this bunch, you have an obligation to stay alive and make sure everyone is doing their assigned task, not get yourself killed looking pretty out here in the open in order to try to inspire them."

"But—"

"Do as you're told, youngster!"

As Raker helped him inside the building, laughing all the while at his expense, Sataki could have sworn he heard Phileas muttering something about kids these days.

* * *

"Get ready! The signal just went up," Asuna called out, brandishing her rapier. "The boss is heading our way and we're going to close this net around it. Let's end this fight here and now!"

Her group, consisting of mostly veterans from the «KoB», was too disciplined to cheer. Instead, they acknowledged her orders by getting into battle formation. The plan was to prevent the boss from getting past before the other groups arrived in an effort to buy time for the fires in the buildings they wanted to pull down to reach a critical level, and then form a gap in their ranks, allowing the boss to run by into the killing field they had set up.

They did not have long to wait. The boss appeared around the corner and charged towards them at a ground-shaking gallop. Its glowing blue eyes created a pale sinuous line that tracked the movement of its head as it approached. Asuna drew her rapier from the sheath attached to her belt and prepared to go in. One red line appeared leading from the boss to their group, but the projectile was blocked by a member of the shielding party and clattered to the ground. Moments later, the defensive line buckled from the impact of the boss crashing into it but held.

"Strikers, move in," Asuna ordered, dashing through an opening that the shield bearers had briefly made to allow them through. A total of five melee damage dealers made it through before the tanks closed the gap.

Asuna concentrated on the target, the boss which had slain so many players. Very few people would be able to tell, but right now, she was seething. Anger directed at the boss, at Kibaou for his idiocy, at the players who had gone in prepared, at herself for being able to only do so much despite her supposed strength, at Kayaba Akihiko for trapping them all in this insane world of his…Her rage was directed at a hundred different sources and it lent her blade strength. Unlike many people, her anger was not the sort that clouded her mind. Instead, it was a focused fury.

She led with «Alcor's Tears», a swift 3-hit thrust combo followed by a quick sidestep and two whip-like slashes with the tip of the blade tracing the shape of a "V". A five-hit «Sword Skill» would usually leave her open for a long enough time that she would risk getting hit, but she chose the move because the sidestep would move her out of the way of the slower members of the Striker group right behind her. And while she usually preferred only using the precise and efficient stabs of other skills, the additional slashes at the end suited her mood today.

She fell into a cycle of hit and runs against the boss, slowly chipping away at its health alongside the rest of the Strikers outside the safety of the defensive line. Their objective was to harry the boss as much as possible and prevent it from focus firing any single target in order to minimize risk and damage taken. Anytime someone was struck, that person would retreat behind the tanks no matter how minor the injury was and someone else would take their place while they recovered. Of the original five who had gone out, Asuna was the only one who did not rotate out yet.

She had become so engrossed in her target that she didn't notice when the members of the other groups started arriving, her attention focused solely on the boss's movements. It was her own group's line of tanks moving aside to let the boss through that clued her in to their presence.

"Damn, your group is professional as hell," an appreciative sounding voice said from behind her. "Hard to believe they're not even the best of the players in your guild. Impressive teamwork."

"If you think so, why don't you join us?" Asuna asked. "And please stop sneaking up on me like that, I keep thinking you're an undetected enemy and it's getting difficult to restrain myself and not turn and stab immediately."

"Not a chance," Kirito replied with a grin.

"Thanks for your hard work," Asuna said, speaking to the silent sniper who was standing behind the boy. Sinon had arrived right on Kirito's trail and the rest of their group was filtering in slowly behind.

"It looked like he was trying to get himself killed a few times," Sinon remarked expressionlessly. "But unfortunately, he didn't seem to manage it this time around." Asuna knew her well enough to translate that as "Kirito was being his usual self, but he didn't take too many risks." Then, her friend added, still sounding unconcerned, "That reminds me. There might be a little snag in our original plan."

"A snag?" Asuna asked. That was usually cause for alarm on the frontlines, but the way Sinon had said it made it seem less pressing.

The boss turned around, its mount snorting as it recognized its mortal enemy. Rearing back, it proceeded to gallop straight for the three teenagers. Kirito took a step to the side away from the girls and the monster automatically adjusted its movement to compensate.

"_That_ would be the snag," Sinon explained. "For better or worse, Kirito seems to have become best friends with that thing. And by that, I mean that it pretty much ignores everyone else and tries to trample him into the ground whenever it catches sight of him."

"You have a really—odd—definition of friends," Asuna noted.

Sinon gave her a bemused look. "Trying your best to beat the tar out of one another…that's how male camaraderie is usually shown in media these days." She turned towards Kirito and added, loudly enough for him to hear easily, "Isn't that right, Kirito?"

The boy she addressed should have been too busy concentrating to retort. Asuna would have expected anyone else in that situation to be fighting for dear life.

"Haha," he shot back dryly. "You've—" He deflected a blow from the boss which was wielding an arrow like a short spear. "Had your fun—" Kirito rolled out of the way of a hoof strike. "Right?" he finished, having bought himself a little room. "I could use a little backup here."

Asuna couldn't resist saying, even as she ran to his aid, "What's this? The great solo player, Mr. 'Guilds-only-hold-me-back' himself, asking for backup? The world must be ending." She admitted to herself that it was an unfair dig at him, but it felt good to vent at him right now. After all, she had to put up with a lot of stress today, roughly half of which was _his_ fault directly.

"New plan," she said as she took advantage of the opening Kirito created to use «Starfall Piercer», a 3-hit rapid stab combo with a short delay before unleashing two more hits. "You're playing the role of bait, Kirito-kun. Lead the boss to the kill zone if you would."

"I was afraid of that," Kirito sighed as he jumped in and attacked the boss without using a skill. He ducked and rolled underneath the boss's mount and sprinted for the defensive line. "Try not to spring the trap while I'm still inside, would you?" he shouted back towards Asuna.

Asuna shook her head. Sometimes she didn't get that boy's sense of humor at all. But he was stronger and more reliable than anyone else she knew, except perhaps the guild leader. If Kirito-kun said he was going to save someone, he would do it. That was why his threats of doing it alone if he had to were so effective. Asuna knew he meant it even if he didn't expect to have to.

_Wait…_ She paused for a moment to think. _Exactly _why_ would Kirito's threats be that effective?_ _Thinking about it logically, he was just one of many other players trapped in this game. Many had died already and many would die before they were through. It was almost as if she saw him as an exception to her usual impartial judgments. Why?_

The sound of combat brought her out of her reverie. This wasn't the time to be thinking about that. The problem still bothered her, but right now, they had to take down the boss. The last of the other groups were arriving now. A young man was helping another, older man, get to where they were. If she remembered correctly, they were a part of Sinon's division. Their names were…

"Oy! Sergeant! You sure got here fast. Did we miss all the fun?" The boy shouted gleefully as soon as he saw Asuna's friend.

"Raker-san and Sataki-san," Sinon said, turning around to face them. "Wait… you're injured. You shouldn't be here!"

"It's just a flesh wound," Sataki replied with a grin. He stumbled before Raker helped him right himself. "Can't use my leg at all, but that won't affect my ability to pull a trigger, right? I need to thank the old man for that. Is Phileas around?"

"I haven't seen him," Sinon replied. "Was he with you guys?"

A haunted whinny filled the air, echoing through the streets and drawing their attention. While Asuna had been distracted, Kirito had brought the boss to the designated area. Deciding it was better to return to the battle instead of listening in on Sinon's conversation, Asuna headed for where the noise had come from in order to check on progress.

Godfree was overseeing the deployment of the trap they had set up. As Asuna approached, he barked out one final order to the men before turning to face her. "We're almost ready on this front," he said with his usual boisterous cheerfulness. In all the time she knew him, she had never once seen him get angry or disheartened no matter how bad things looked. It was that trait, combined with his force of personality which catapulted him to an officer position in the «KoB».

He was looking down the street with an appreciative smile. The sound of steel clashing upon steel rang out from the direction he was looking in. "Man, that kid sure is something, taking on the boss alone even if he's just focusing on dodging. I asked him if he wanted backup when he ran by, but he just told me point blank to get to work setting up the trap."

"How much more time do you need?" Asuna asked.

Godfree scratched his head and replied, "To be honest, I'm not sure. The ropes are all set up, but I have no idea when the buildings themselves will take enough damage to pull down. At the least, the building we tested it on hasn't budged the last few times we tried yanking on a rope."

"You tried to pull a building down while Kirito-kun is still out there fighting?" Asuna asked incredulously.

"It was only a small tug on one rope to test," the officer replied. "Not enough to bring a whole house down, I'd say."

"That's still…" Asuna shook her head. "No, I guess we have no choice but to do it that way. I'll help with buying time for your men. It seems that this boss isn't too capable in close combat against speed-focused fighters but stand by in case we need back-up."

She told herself that her decision was definitely _not_ because she was a bit concerned about how Kirito-kun was doing fighting by himself.

* * *

"Hmmph, I was hoping this wasn't the case…"

Phileas muttered to himself from a position hidden behind some rubble. A large crowd of «Turned» was gathered in the area, attracted by the noise the raiders had made while forcing the boss into a corner. While the barriers they had set up were good enough for keeping the boss from passing easily, the same could not be said for the smaller zombies that infested this lair.

Whether it was an oversight or because they simply didn't have the manpower to defend every point of entry, the front-liners fighting the boss would be in for a nasty surprise if this army of the dead came up from behind them. At the least, it would mean more deaths as they adjusted to the new situation while simultaneously fighting the boss.

He considered the options he had available to him. Warn the others? No, they had enough on their plates. Phileas doubted that the ones who frequented boss battles would have missed this detail. Which meant that they were hoping to wrap things up before the «Turned» arrived. But judging from how close they were already, that hope was doomed to die. Perhaps he could get some melee fighters to create a defensive line around here? No, that wouldn't work either. Even if they didn't need every available hand to fight the boss, there was just no way they would be able to keep the enemy from getting through. Not when the battlefield was rife with alleyways and access points that the zombies could use to bypass their defenses.

He could just walk away. There was no one around to criticize him for taking the "coward's" way out. He'd done it in the past before; it was the reason why he was still alive, unlike the rest of his former company. But Phileas knew that wasn't an option anymore. He was no longer the self-absorbed, egotistic young man he had once been.

Phileas grumbled to himself. The feeling of being some sort of cosmic plaything had just intensified. Reason being that, after all that posturing and lecturing he had given Raker and Sataki about valuing their lives, the only action he could take now was every bit as stupid and suicidal as anything they had done, if not more.

Well, he had to admit that he had been tempting fate a bit when he chose his character's name in «SLD». He had taken his old call-name from his mercenary unit out of a sense of nostalgia; a name that had been jokingly bequeathed to him, taken from a Jules Verne book, when he had declared his intention of seeing everything the world had to offer. The name he was known by what seemed a lifetime ago.

"Fine then…" Phileas said, getting up from his hiding spot with a determined look in his eye. A few nearby «Turned» shuffled around in response to the noise he had made. A malevolent grin spread across his face, a relic of his past that he found himself fighting to suppress ever since entering this world. He declared in a loud voice, directing his challenge to the undead around him, "All journeys have to come to an end. I will personally guide you lost souls to the underworld!"

* * *

"The building's starting to give way!"

An almost celebratory shout rang out from the front, almost distracting Sinon as she took her shot. The bullet went a bit high but still hit the target, ripping a hole through the boss's mantle and blowing a chip off «The White Rider»'s collarbone. She gave a small 'tsk' of displeasure.

She peered through her scope again. It was unlikely that Kirito and Asuna didn't hear the shout go up, but the two of them were still busy fighting the monster. The two had been fighting non-stop for ten minutes now. Their fighting prowess was impressive; even someone like Sinon who never fought from melee range when she could help it could tell as much.

"Come on, what are you two doing?" Sinon muttered. "You're going to get caught in the trap if you don't get out of there now…"

There was no possible way they could have heard her from this distance. But if they were still fighting, there must be a reason. Neither Kirito nor Asuna would take risks unnecessarily. If they were staying in, there had to be a reason. Whatever the case, Sinon's job was to back them up from the rear. Anything outside of that, such as worrying for her friends, was just a needless distraction. She was ice.

Kachak…

Fragments of bone exploded outwards from the boss's ribcage.

Sinon reloaded again.

The boss's mount reared back instead of following through with an attack as a bullet struck it in the left kneecap.

She had one bullet left in her magazine. Through her scope, she could see Asuna shouting something at Kirito and pointing back in Sinon's general direction. Kirito shook his head and shouted something back before renewing an assault on the boss.

His attacks were fierce enough that they actually pushed the boss back. Slowly, step by step, the Black Swordsman advanced, heedless of the hits he was receiving in turn. Red gashes appeared in quick succession on his left shoulder, right leg, and at his side, just above the hip. They were shallow cuts, but the damage quickly added up to equal half of his health bar. The buildings to the side swayed dangerously, moving in sync with the men below who were pulling at them with ropes that were wrapped around trees, rusted lampposts, or any other supporting structure that could act as a makeshift pulley.

"You're running out of time, Kirito…that's good enough," Sinon murmured.

Almost as if he had heard her words, Kirito spun about, ducking under an arrow that the boss swiped at him like a spear, and dashed towards Asuna. Seeing him head for her, Asuna also began to retreat out of the zone where the trap would be triggered. The boss, recovering from a brief lapse after its attack, gave chase and rapidly closed the distance.

A shower of debris slowed the monster down slightly, but it was still going to catch up to Kirito before he reached safety. If he turned around to defend himself, he wouldn't be able to get to the edge of the trap before it was sprung.

"Once again, you melee guys leave all the cleanup to the ranged," Sinon said to no one in particular. She pulled the trigger, firing the last shot in her magazine just as the red indicator circle shrank to a gumball-sized dot on the boss's forehead.

A cacophony of gunshots rang out at nearly the same time, sending a thunderous peal skywards as a dozen other players realized that the end of the battle was drawing near and they reacted at different speeds. The end result was spectacular. Bombarded from above at all angles, the boss's mount reared back and was further slammed with additional projectiles, causing it to lose balance and fall. The crumbling structures around it finally gave way, collapsing on top of the struggling monster. A massive cloud of dust, ash, and soot billowed out down the street; it was impossible to tell where Kirito was, or if he was alright.

Swinging the Hecate II onto her back, Sinon raced down to the door of the building she had been holed up in and dashed for the front. She ignored the scattered cheers that rose from the ranks of players celebrating the success of the plan. Her only concern were the two friends she had been supporting. Asuna was alright. Even from this distance, it was impossible to miss her with her long chestnut hair and white uniform laced in red. However, Sinon couldn't see Kirito at all.

"You better not have gotten yourself killed," Sinon whispered softly.

Asuna was waiting where she had been earlier, having not moved a single step. For a brief second, Sinon wondered why, but then realized it must be because the thick cloud of dust and ash made it extremely risky to get closer, in case the boss freed itself quickly or worse, had avoided the trap altogether. Although she said nothing, it was obvious that her friend was fully concentrating on the scene before her, trying to make out any hint of the boy who had fought alongside her a mere minute ago.

A shadow appeared from within the smoke, distorted and vague at first, but growing darker and more distinct as it approached. Based on the size, there was only one person it could be.

"Really Kirito? You're going to make us wait as you take your time and try to look all dramatic exiting the destruction behind you?" Sinon mumbled. "Well, it suits you I guess."

The swordsman appeared a moment later, strolling along the road with a lopsided grin on his face and, it would seem, without a care in the world. He gave a cheerful wave to Asuna and Sinon but did not pick up the pace to reach them. The image was only slightly marred by a thin gray layer of ash and dust that had settled upon his hair and coat as well as the soot that blackened his cheeks.

"Are you alright?" Asuna asked calmly. Though she was trying to act as if she was asking only out of courtesy, Sinon detected a slight waver in her friend's voice. Kirito, however, didn't seem to notice.

"Perfectly alright," he replied, equally calmly. "It'll take a little more than a bunch of falling bricks to kill me."

Asuna opened her mouth to retort, thought better of it, then turned around and walked off towards the men from her guild with a "hmmph!" directed at Kirito. If she was dissatisfied with his answer, it was counteracted by the slight upturn at the corner of her mouth as she left.

Sinon turned to Kirito. "You're a pretty good liar," she said to him quietly so that Asuna wouldn't overhear. "But I'll forgive you this time since Asuna seems like she's in a good mood."

"What do you mean?" he asked with a straight face. His innocent act was irritating in its convincingness, especially since Sinon was well-aware of his real personality.

"You got caught underneath the rubble, didn't you?" Sinon accused. "Even taking into account how slowly you walked out, there's no way it would have taken you that long to get back here. Plus, those rips in the tail of your coat and at the leg of your pants weren't there when you were fighting the boss. Not to mention your health bar is full right now. It wasn't earlier, which means you drank a potion sometime when you were out of sight. You can heal the damage you've taken, but unless you've taking up «Sewing», which I know you haven't because you pretty much define the term 'Munchkin,' you can't do anything about your equipment durability."

"Ahaha…can't get anything past you, it seems," Kirito replied sheepishly. "Well, I'll admit I screwed up a little, but I made it out in one piece at least." Then, changing the subject as Asuna returned with the rest of the «KoB» in tow, he added, "I guess all we can do is wait and see what happens once the dust settles down. I hope that was enough to finish the job though…everyone looks exhausted."

He was right. Even the KoB regulars were looking worn out. While they had only done a small portion of the actual fighting, as the most experienced fighters in the raid, they had been in charge of setting almost everything up and overseeing the members of the other guilds. Although they would be able to last a while longer in combat, it would be a miracle if they could fight at half-efficiency.

The cloud of ash slowly dissipated over the course of five long minutes. In that time, not one person spoke a word; all eyes trying to pierce through the dust. The dust cleared to reveal…nothing but rubble. But just before the cheering could begin, a skeletal hand shot up from underneath the largest mound of debris. It waved about for a moment, clutching at air before faltering and dropping to the ground. A second later, it shattered in what was possibly the most beautiful «Death Effect» Sinon had seen.

* * *

-One day later-

"So, you're really leaving?"

Yulier's words did not seem to be seeking an answer. From the start, it was obvious that Sinon was ready to go, having turned in her resignation earlier in the day. In fact, she was officially not a member of the «Aincrad Liberation Force» anymore, having left the guild about an hour ago. The reason she wasn't gone yet was because she had a few things to take care of within the «Black Iron Castle» before leaving. That and it seemed that around every corner, someone was waiting either to pester her for details about what had happened the day before or to say an overly long goodbye.

It actually surprised her a bit; the number of people who actually seemed to want to bid her a friendly farewell. She had been under the impression that, outside of the «Ranged Division», most members of the «ALF» either didn't care to associate with her or were part of Kibaou's crowd. And more surprisingly, she found that she was actually giving them the time of day to do so instead of just going about her business. Which was why she had decided to drop all but the most vital of tasks she had to finish up so that she could leave before she ended up stuck all day in the castle or worse, changed her mind about leaving.

Yulier shook her head and spoke again. "You know, you're an odd one. You've caused your fair share of trouble for Thinker and me, but you've also gone above and beyond what you've promised to do. And while we've had our share of arguments and I was against you joining at first, I can't say I won't be sorry to see you go." The older woman sighed. "What I want to say is, if you ever need help, don't hesitate to ask. I know you'll just ignore what I just said, keeping up the 'tough loner' image, but still…"

Sinon smiled a bit. "It's more likely that _you'll_ be the one coming to _me_ for help," she replied. She turned around to leave before reconsidering. "But… I'll keep your offer in mind."

However, there was one final obstacle to get past before she would be able to get away. They were waiting for her just in front of the massive double doors that made up the main entrance to the «Black Iron Castle».

"Don't you guys have anything better to do?" Sinon asked, placing her hands on her hips.

It seemed as if the entire «Ranged Division» was gathered there despite the ordeal of the previous day. They had lost two members during the boss fight and, while that number might have been a small miracle in itself, there had been an uneasy sense that they could have done better when they had found out upon leaving the boss's lair. Even if they weren't in mourning, by all rights, the living members of the division should be resting today.

"You know us," Sataki replied with his usual cheerfulness. He didn't seem like someone who had almost died in combat less than 24 hours ago. "There wasn't anyone there to make us practice our survival skills in the field so we all ended up slacking off. Coincidentally, we all just decided to slack off right here by the main door."

"Whatever, just let me by," Sinon replied. "You're blocking the doorway."

"Sorry, no can do Sergeant," he said with a smug grin. "We've talked it over and decided that you won't get past us."

Sinon glared at him with such coldness that the man actually flinched. "You're overstepping your authority. In the first place, you answer to me, not the other way around. Now get out of my way."

That brought a smile to the face of almost everyone present, but Sataki didn't back down. "Well, seeing as how you're not a part of the guild anymore…technically I don't answer to you."

Sinon growled. She tried to push through, but the «Ranged Division» members were packed too tightly to get around. Every time she tried from a different angle, they would shift around so that the densest part of the crowd was blocking her. It was infuriating…they never showed nearly this much organization during training. She was just about to go and find a side exit when the sound of running footsteps behind her made her turn about.

"Am I late!?" Raker exclaimed loudly, as he tried to catch his breath. He put his hands on his knees as he looked towards Sataki.

"Slow!" the man shouted back. "After this, give me 5 laps around the base."

"Shut the hell up," the teen replied.

Meanwhile, Sinon was standing about looking more and more confused. "Will someone tell me what's going on?" she asked irritably. "I thought you guys were trying to stop me from leaving?"

"Ah, sorry about that, but it's not every day we get to see you flustered," Sataki grinned. Sinon kicked him in the shin as hard as she could. Even though he didn't actually feel any pain, it was a bit satisfying to see him briefly clutch his leg like it had hurt. He no longer wore a tourniquet on that leg. "Anyways, we weren't really trying to stop you…just delay you long enough for 'Mr. Slow-in-more-ways-than-one' here to get back here before you left."

"Hey! I heard that!"

"I meant for you to!" Sataki shouted back.

Sinon stood there, arms crossed as she waited for their bantering to end. If she didn't know any better, she would have guessed the two were siblings, with how often they engaged in that sort of friendly animosity.

"Oh crap!" Sataki exclaimed before mumbling something about Raker that was completely incomprehensible. "Sorry about that Sergeant, I almost forgot! But you see…it's a cold, harsh world out there…so we all chipped in to get you this."

With a dramatic flourish, he tried to snatch the bundle that Raker had tucked under his arm. The boy refused to let go and the two struggled over the package for a bit, each arguing about how the other was "ruining the moment." Then, breathing hard from exertion, on hand on his knee as he doubled up trying to catch his breath, Sataki handed the wrapped item over to Sinon unceremoniously.

"What's the matter? Your age catching up to you?" Raker challenged.

This time, Sataki didn't let the provocation affect him. In a more serious tone, he told Sinon, "It was actually Phileas's idea to get you a little something when you went. I think he knew that you would choose to go off on your own in the end. Seeing as how he…" He paused, not wanting to finish that sentence. "Nevermind…but this is for you. From all of us. And if you ever find yourself in need of help..."

"Thank you," Sinon replied earnestly. She tore open the package she had been given to reveal a light-tan colored scarf.

"Like I said," Sataki said with a grin. "It's a cold, harsh world out there. Hopefully this will help."

"You guys…" Sinon began. Then she cocked her head. "I've been meaning to ask…what's that commotion going on outside? Not a surprise you guys planned, is it?"

"Oh that," Raker said with a disinterested tone. He turned his head to listen and shrugged. "Nothing you should concern yourself with. Just that disgraced idiot windbag Kibaou mouthing off at the top of his lungs. They've been trying to get him out of his room to shut him up but I think he locked the place up. His rank hasn't been revoked yet either so until Thinker gets back so we can 'forcibly remove' him, we need to put up with his nonsense."

"Nonsense?"

"He's trying to put his own spin on the events from yesterday," Sataki answered. "Not that anyone from the «ALF» will listen to him anymore since he turned criminal. All he has left is…" His eyes widened as he realized that Kibaou still had a substantial number of supporters outside of the guild since his recent screw-ups hadn't been made public.

"I just thought of the perfect gift to get you guys in return for this," Sinon said as she wrapped the scarf around her neck. It was long enough to require a second loop. "I'd feel a bit bad about it if I were still in the guild, but seeing as how I'm not…why don't you guys make sure you have a nice view of Kibaou's window in say, 10 minutes?"

She left them standing there without looking back. She didn't do so to be callous, but in her heart, Sinon felt that if she turned around now, she might just hesitate to return to the path she had temporarily abandoned.

-o-

"Preparations complete…"

Sinon muttered this from her perch at the top of the clock tower. It was the highest point in the town and had an unobstructed view of the front of the «Black Iron Castle». People milled about their business on the street below, each looking no larger than the tip of her pinky. It was the sort of place that gave one the impression that they were above human concerns, that they were set apart from the rest, transcendant; it was the sort of place that made one feel as if they were worthy to judge others.

In short, it was the sort of place that suited Sinon's task for herself perfectly.

She checked the Hecate methodically, making sure each part was in good working order. She hadn't had time to repair it since the boss battle yesterday, but that wasn't a big concern. Then, she checked her pouch and made sure she had remembered to place a «Teleportation Crystal» inside. It wouldn't do to be caught red-handed. When she was satisfied with everything, Sinon leaned the gun on the windowsill and looked through her scope. Her target was easy enough to spot; there was no mistaking that ridiculous hairstyle and even if she had, the man had the decency to mark himself out by wildly waving and gesturing with exaggerated motions.

The bell behind her began to ring, a golden chime that was deafening due to her close proximity to the source. She ignored it. Sinon was ice itself; it could not affect her. The distance to her target was about 700 meters, a respectable distance, but nothing she couldn't handle.

The targeting circle in her scope appeared, but from past experience, she knew that from this distance, it wouldn't be accurate with respect to how much the bullet dropped due to gravity. Sinon adjusted for this manually, aiming above her intended target.

As she prepared to shoot, an errant thought ran through her mind. Was this the right thing to do? She considered this briefly, setting aside the part of herself who wanted to do this for the sake of petty vengeance. This was a man who had lead his followers to ruin out of pride. He was someone who craved power and didn't care if he lowered the survival rate of everyone he interacted with in order to do so.

She made her decision swiftly. In the real world, laws would have put him behind bars long ago. But there were no laws here. None save for those built in to the system and a scant few that players tried to enforce amongst themselves. There were no police, no judges, and no juries here. When Kayaba had created his world, he had given them a blank slate to work with.

And so, on the twelfth peal of the tower bell at noon on May 20th, 2023, the sky was split apart with the sound of thunder. Only a select few knew exactly what transpired that day, but numerous rumors began to spring up almost immediately. Of these, the second most popular was that Kibaou's words were so false that the system itself stepped in to correct them. But the most popular by far in the imagination of the players at large was that the division leader of the «ALF» had been judged by a merciless goddess and had been found wanting.

* * *

*notes: Ok, this chapter took forever to get out. Overall chapter length was pretty crazy. It ended up being over 70 pages in Word. Hopefully you enjoyed this epic (in length but hopefully in scale as well) conclusion to "The Army" arc.

And while OCs aren't really that important in the grand scheme of things, Phileas is dead. I'll leave the details to your imagination. Sometimes you die a hero and people remember your deeds for years or centuries to come. Sometimes you die no less a hero but aren't remembered at all because no one was there to witness your story. That's the type of world I envision this version of SAO as.

Not much else to talk about in the notes but if anything wasn't clear or if you have comments on the chapter, drop me a PM or mention it in a review and I'll try to reply if I can.

Edit: Turns out that I accidentally reused a name from a previnous chapter which wouldn't be an issue if the guy in question wasn't dead in chapter 2. It has been fixed. Thanks goes to Guile for catching it.


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